Drowning is one of the leading causes of child mortality nearly 1,100
deaths per year of children aged 1 to 19 years in the United States. For
that reason, it has been a target of local and state governments for
some time. Public information campaigns and drives for fencing around
private swimming pools, use of proper life vests as well as other
provisions, such as "safe" swim areas in beaches and parks that are
patrolled and monitored by life guards, have been part of their efforts.
Florida, Hawaii and Alaska have the highest rates of drowning
incidents, and 2009 figures cite Florida with a shocking fatality rate
of 8 deaths per 100,000 in the age 1 to 4 category.
It is good news then that figures published in Pediatrics, The Official Journal of the American Academy of Perdiatrics, show a large decline in hospital admissions for drowning incidents over the last sixteen years. Around half the number of children were hospitalized in 2008 compared to 1993. The figures show nearly 3,700 admissions of children 19 and under in 1993 versus fewer than 1800 in 2008. By comparison to Florida's numbers, this means a drop from 4.2 per 100,000 children, down to 2.4 per 100,000 in more recent years.
The south and western states appear to be the ones deserving credit, with their figures declining rapidly, although still having more incidents than the Northeast and Midwest states. Comparisons are not entirely fair though, since those living in sunnier, warmer climates like southern California and Florida are likely to be in and around the water year round, whilst cold winters and chillier summers, especially in the northeast, mean children find other activities in certain states.
Stephen Bowman, from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, who led the study said :
Along with education and public awareness, technology and safety standards have improved since 1993 and parents are more likely to find full life vests for their children in their local supermarket, than they might have been ten, twenty years ago. It's also becoming less common to find children that never learned to swim and parents that are ignorant of drowning risks, which could in part be attributed to the Internet and the information age that we now live in.
Researchers estimated that the number of kids who died after being hospitalized dropped from approximately 359 in 1993 to 207 in 2008. This doesn't include those who drowned and were pronounced dead before arriving at hospital.
Bowman also notes that data is lacking on whether any of the victims suffered brain damage as a result of their drowning incident and if there were any long term ramifications for the survivors, telling Reuters Health :
Dr. Gary Smith, head of the Center for Injury Research and Policy at Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, did not think that the decline could be attributed to any specific public health campaign, but rather that parent education efforts are starting to show results. He warned against complacency :
Bowman concurred :
It seems so senseless, preventable and tragic that a young child or teenager loses their life through what is always in hindsight a preventable drowning. We can hope that parents and governments continue to make progress in tackling this issue.
In an Abstract in the journal, the authors concluded:
It is good news then that figures published in Pediatrics, The Official Journal of the American Academy of Perdiatrics, show a large decline in hospital admissions for drowning incidents over the last sixteen years. Around half the number of children were hospitalized in 2008 compared to 1993. The figures show nearly 3,700 admissions of children 19 and under in 1993 versus fewer than 1800 in 2008. By comparison to Florida's numbers, this means a drop from 4.2 per 100,000 children, down to 2.4 per 100,000 in more recent years.
The south and western states appear to be the ones deserving credit, with their figures declining rapidly, although still having more incidents than the Northeast and Midwest states. Comparisons are not entirely fair though, since those living in sunnier, warmer climates like southern California and Florida are likely to be in and around the water year round, whilst cold winters and chillier summers, especially in the northeast, mean children find other activities in certain states.
Stephen Bowman, from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, who led the study said :
"I think there have been some very good efforts...to try to educate parents on the importance of helping to prevent drowning at all points in childhood development."
Along with education and public awareness, technology and safety standards have improved since 1993 and parents are more likely to find full life vests for their children in their local supermarket, than they might have been ten, twenty years ago. It's also becoming less common to find children that never learned to swim and parents that are ignorant of drowning risks, which could in part be attributed to the Internet and the information age that we now live in.
Researchers estimated that the number of kids who died after being hospitalized dropped from approximately 359 in 1993 to 207 in 2008. This doesn't include those who drowned and were pronounced dead before arriving at hospital.
Bowman also notes that data is lacking on whether any of the victims suffered brain damage as a result of their drowning incident and if there were any long term ramifications for the survivors, telling Reuters Health :
"It's hard to answer the tougher question of, 'Is there long-term cognitive brain damage as a result of (almost) drowning for some of these children?'"
Dr. Gary Smith, head of the Center for Injury Research and Policy at Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, did not think that the decline could be attributed to any specific public health campaign, but rather that parent education efforts are starting to show results. He warned against complacency :
"While this study shows that we're making really good progress, especially in the western and southern regions of our country, we have some sobering data still that drowning remains one of the leading causes of death among children ... We have still a lot of work to do."
Bowman concurred :
"Leaving children unattended even for a moment around a swimming pool, especially toddlers ... it's just a recipe for a disaster. It's something we can't reinforce enough ... Parents need to make sure they're not leaving kids alone, whether it's in the bathtub, or in open water around rivers or lakes, or in a backyard swimming pool."
It seems so senseless, preventable and tragic that a young child or teenager loses their life through what is always in hindsight a preventable drowning. We can hope that parents and governments continue to make progress in tackling this issue.
In an Abstract in the journal, the authors concluded:
"Pediatric hospitalization rates for drowning have decreased over the past 16 years. Our study provides national estimates of pediatric drowning hospitalization that can be used as benchmarks to target and assess prevention strategies."
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