C J Saunders1, D Sewduth, N Naidoo. 1. Division of Emergency Medicine, Department of Surgery, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Cape Town, South Africa; Lifesaving South Africa, Durban, South Africa; Department of Emergency Medical Sciences, Faculty of Health and Wellness Sciences, Cape Peninsula University of Technology, Cape Town, South Africa. colljsaunders@gmail.com.
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Drowning is defined as the process of experiencing respiratory impairment from submersion/immersion in liquid, and can have one of three outcomes - no morbidity, morbidity or mortality. The World Health Organization African region accounts for approximately 20% of global drowning, with a drowning mortality rate of 13.1 per 100 000 population. The strategic implementation of intervention programmes driven by evidence-based decisions is of prime importance in resource-limited settings such as South Africa (SA). OBJECTIVE: To review the available epidemiological data on fatal drowning in SA in order to identify gaps in the current knowledge base and priority intervention areas. METHODS: A systematic review of published literature was conducted to review the available epidemiological data describing fatal drowning in SA. In addition, an internet search for grey literature, including technical reports, describing SA fatal drowning epidemiology was conducted. RESULTS: A total of 13 published research articles and 27 reports obtained through a grey literature search met the inclusion and exclusion criteria. These 40 articles and reports covered data collection periods between 1995 and 2016, and were largely focused on urban settings. The fatal drowning burden in SA is stable at approximately 3.0 per 100 000 population, but is increasing as a proportion of all non-natural deaths. Drowning mortality rates are high in children aged <15 years, particularly in those aged <5. CONCLUSIONS: This review suggests that SA drowning prevention initiatives are currently confined to the early stages of an effective injury prevention strategy. The distribution of mortality across age groups and drowning location differs substantially between urban centres and provinces. There is therefore a need for detailed drowning surveillance to monitor national trends and identify risk factors in all SA communities.
BACKGROUND: Drowning is defined as the process of experiencing respiratory impairment from submersion/immersion in liquid, and can have one of three outcomes - no morbidity, morbidity or mortality. The World Health Organization African region accounts for approximately 20% of global drowning, with a drowning mortality rate of 13.1 per 100 000 population. The strategic implementation of intervention programmes driven by evidence-based decisions is of prime importance in resource-limited settings such as South Africa (SA). OBJECTIVE: To review the available epidemiological data on fatal drowning in SA in order to identify gaps in the current knowledge base and priority intervention areas. METHODS: A systematic review of published literature was conducted to review the available epidemiological data describing fatal drowning in SA. In addition, an internet search for grey literature, including technical reports, describing SA fatal drowning epidemiology was conducted. RESULTS: A total of 13 published research articles and 27 reports obtained through a grey literature search met the inclusion and exclusion criteria. These 40 articles and reports covered data collection periods between 1995 and 2016, and were largely focused on urban settings. The fatal drowning burden in SA is stable at approximately 3.0 per 100 000 population, but is increasing as a proportion of all non-natural deaths. Drowning mortality rates are high in children aged &lt;15 years, particularly in those aged &lt;5. CONCLUSIONS: This review suggests that SA drowning prevention initiatives are currently confined to the early stages of an effective injury prevention strategy. The distribution of mortality across age groups and drowning location differs substantially between urban centres and provinces. There is therefore a need for detailed drowning surveillance to monitor national trends and identify risk factors in all SA communities.
Authors: Richard Charles Franklin; Amy E Peden; Erin B Hamilton; Catherine Bisignano; Chris D Castle; Zachary V Dingels; Simon I Hay; Zichen Liu; Ali H Mokdad; Nicholas L S Roberts; Dillon O Sylte; Theo Vos; Gdiom Gebreheat Abady; Akine Eshete Abosetugn; Rushdia Ahmed; Fares Alahdab; Catalina Liliana Andrei; Carl Abelardo T Antonio; Jalal Arabloo; Aseb Arba Kinfe Arba; Ashish D Badiye; Shankar M Bakkannavar; Maciej Banach; Palash Chandra Banik; Amrit Banstola; Suzanne Lyn Barker-Collo; Akbar Barzegar; Mohsen Bayati; Pankaj Bhardwaj; Soumyadeep Bhaumik; Zulfiqar A Bhutta; Ali Bijani; Archith Boloor; Félix Carvalho; Mohiuddin Ahsanul Kabir Chowdhury; Dinh-Toi Chu; Samantha M Colquhoun; Henok Dagne; Baye Dagnew; Lalit Dandona; Rakhi Dandona; Ahmad Daryani; Samath Dhamminda Dharmaratne; Zahra Sadat Dibaji Forooshani; Hoa Thi Do; Tim Robert Driscoll; Arielle Wilder Eagan; Ziad El-Khatib; Eduarda Fernandes; Irina Filip; Florian Fischer; Berhe Gebremichael; Gaurav Gupta; Juanita A Haagsma; Shoaib Hassan; Delia Hendrie; Chi Linh Hoang; Michael K Hole; Ramesh Holla; Sorin Hostiuc; Mowafa Househ; Olayinka Stephen Ilesanmi; Leeberk Raja Inbaraj; Seyed Sina Naghibi Irvani; M Mofizul Islam; Rebecca Q Ivers; Achala Upendra Jayatilleke; Farahnaz Joukar; Rohollah Kalhor; Tanuj Kanchan; Neeti Kapoor; Amir Kasaeian; Maseer Khan; Ejaz Ahmad Khan; Jagdish Khubchandani; Kewal Krishan; G Anil Kumar; Paolo Lauriola; Alan D Lopez; Mohammed Madadin; Marek Majdan; Venkatesh Maled; Navid Manafi; Ali Manafi; Martin McKee; Hagazi Gebre Meles; Ritesh G Menezes; Tuomo J Meretoja; Ted R Miller; Prasanna Mithra; Abdollah Mohammadian-Hafshejani; Reza Mohammadpourhodki; Farnam Mohebi; Mariam Molokhia; Ghulam Mustafa; Ionut Negoi; Cuong Tat Nguyen; Huong Lan Thi Nguyen; Andrew T Olagunju; Tinuke O Olagunju; Jagadish Rao Padubidri; Keyvan Pakshir; Ashish Pathak; Suzanne Polinder; Dimas Ria Angga Pribadi; Navid Rabiee; Amir Radfar; Saleem Muhammad Rana; Jennifer Rickard; Saeed Safari; Payman Salamati; Abdallah M Samy; Abdur Razzaque Sarker; David C Schwebel; Subramanian Senthilkumaran; Faramarz Shaahmadi; Masood Ali Shaikh; Jae Il Shin; Pankaj Kumar Singh; Amin Soheili; Mark A Stokes; Hafiz Ansar Rasul Suleria; Ingan Ukur Tarigan; Mohamad-Hani Temsah; Berhe Etsay Tesfay; Pascual R Valdez; Yousef Veisani; Pengpeng Ye; Naohiro Yonemoto; Chuanhua Yu; Hasan Yusefzadeh; Sojib Bin Zaman; Zhi-Jiang Zhang; Spencer L James Journal: Inj Prev Date: 2020-02-20 Impact factor: 2.399