10 hours ago
Fast Five Quiz: Drowning
Drowning is a significant cause of mortality. In the United States, it is the leading cause of death among children aged 1-4 years. Even when not fatal, drowning can result in permanent and severe disability due to prolonged hypoxia. Globally, drowning deaths decreased by 38% between 2000 and 2024. However, in the United States, the drowning mortality rate increased from 2019 to 2022. On average, 11 drowning deaths per day occur in the United States.
Do you know the latest facts surrounding drowning? Check your knowledge with this brief quiz.
There are major racial/ethnic disparities in drowning deaths and swimming ability in the United States. Although Alaska Native/non-Hispanic American Indian peoples and Black people have the highest drowning rates, the lowest rate of swimming lessons is among Hispanic adults, at only 28.1%. Comparatively, 36.9% of Black adults and 51.8% of White adults have taken swimming lessons. The overall rate of swimming lessons among all US adults is 45.3%.
Learn more about drowning epidemiology.
A global review on drowning prevention among children and young people found several effective strategies. In addition to placing barriers around bodies of water, the review also found wearing personal flotation devices and removing or covering water hazards to be effective in drowning prevention.
Use of solar pool covers was deemed a harmful strategy because unsupervised children have become trapped under these covers and drowned. There have also been cases of drowning deaths among infants placed in baby bath seats in bathtubs.
Community-based water safety awareness campaigns were rated as "promising" in the review. Although several campaigns have resulted in increased rates of personal flotation device ownership, the results vary according to the nature of the campaign and its audience. Some campaigns were noted to lack a statistically significant positive impact.
Learn more about patient education on drowning.
A retrospective cohort study of 406 pediatric drowning patients found that the absence of prehospital cardiac arrest, along with transfer to a high-volume hospital and indoor drowning location, were factors significantly associated with a good clinical outcome. In the study, only one patient died among the 218 patients without prehospital cardiac arrest. However, only five patients had good outcomes among the 188 patients with prehospital cardiac arrest.
Patient sex, age, and prehospital time since drowning event were not significantly associated with clinical outcome.
Learn more about drowning prognosis.
According to American Heart Association/American Academy of Pediatrics guidelines, in-water rescue breathing should be provided to drowning victims by trained rescuers if safe. Guidelines from the Wilderness Medical Society concur. It is not necessary to wait until the patient is on dry land or in a vessel before commencing rescue breathing.
Resuscitation of drowning patients should not focus on chest compressions alone. Ventilation and airway management are crucial because cardiac arrest often follows severe hypoxemia in drowning cases.
Although it is prudent for water recreation areas to provide automatic external defibrillators, most drowning victims who enter cardiac arrest do not present with defibrillation-responsive rhythms.
The Heimlich maneuver is not recommended in drowning because efforts to expel water from the lungs delays resuscitation and might increase the risk for vomiting and aspiration.
Learn more about prehospital care in drowning.
The Wilderness Medical Society does not recommend empirical antibiotics in the initial management of drowning patients. Although pneumonia might result from aspirated water, the causative microorganisms are often atypical and unresponsive to empirical antibiotic therapies. Additionally, inflammatory pneumonitis resulting from water aspiration and the stress of the drowning event may be mistaken for symptoms of infectious pneumonia.
Ideally, before antibiotic administration, pneumonia should be confirmed by urinary antigen testing, sputum cultures, and/or blood cultures.
Learn more about the disposition of drowning victims.
