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Original article
Unintentional drowning mortality in China, 2006–2013
  1. Lijun Wang1,
  2. Xunjie Cheng2,
  3. Peng Yin1,
  4. Peixia Cheng2,
  5. Yunning Liu1,
  6. David C Schwebel3,
  7. Jiangmei Liu1,
  8. Jinlei Qi1,
  9. Maigeng Zhou1,
  10. Guoqing Hu2
  1. 1 National Center for Chronic and Noncommunicable Disease Control and Prevention, Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Beijing, China
  2. 2 Department of Epidemiology and Health Statistics, Xiangya School of Public Health, Central South University, Changsha, China
  3. 3 Department of Psychology, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, Alabama, USA
  1. Correspondence to Dr Maigeng Zhou, National Center for Chronic and Noncommunicable Disease Control and Prevention, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Beijing 100050, China; maigengzhou{at}126.com and Dr Guoqing Hu, Department of Epidemiology and Health Statistics, Xiangya School of Public Health, Central South University, Changsha 410078, China; huguoqing009{at}gmail.com

Abstract

Background Epidemiological characteristics and recent trends in unintentional drowning at the national level in China are unreported.

Methods Using data from the Disease Surveillance Points system, the overall, sex-, location-, age- and cause-specific age-standardised mortality from unintentional drowning in China were calculated and compared. Linear regression was used to examine the significance of mortality trend changes over time.

Results The average mortality was 4.05 per 100 000 persons between 2006 and 2013. Men and rural residents had much higher drowning mortality rates than women and urban residents at all time points. Drowning following a fall into natural water was the most common mechanism (46% of all drowning deaths). The overall drowning mortality rate remained stable for all subgroups except for distinct decreases in urban residents, children aged 5–9 years, and other specified and unspecified drowning (−10%, −36% and −25%, respectively).

Conclusions The overall drowning mortality rate remained high and stable in China between 2006 and 2013. Effective prevention measures like removing or covering water hazards, wearing personal floatation devices, supervision of children, and teaching survival swimming and resuscitation skills should be implemented nationwide.

  • drowning
  • characteristics
  • trend
  • mechanism
  • China

This is an open access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/

https://doi.org/10.1136/injuryprev-2017-042713

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    Footnotes

    • LW and XC are joint first authors.

    • Contributors All authors contributed to the following: conception and design, acquisition of data or analysis and interpretation of data; drafting the article or revising it critically for important intellectual content; final approval of the version published.

    • Funding The authors have not declared a specific grant for this research from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.

    • Competing interests None declared.

    • Patient consent Not required.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.