RT Journal Article SR Electronic T1 Analysis of the childhood fatal drowning situation in Bangladesh: exploring prevention measures for low-income countries JF Injury Prevention JO Inj Prev FD BMJ Publishing Group Ltd SP 75 OP 79 DO 10.1136/ip.2008.020123 VO 15 IS 2 A1 A Rahman A1 S R Mashreky A1 S M Chowdhury A1 M S Giashuddin A1 I J Uhaa A1 S Shafinaz A1 M Hossain A1 M Linnan A1 F Rahman YR 2009 UL http://injuryprevention.bmj.com/content/15/2/75.abstract AB Objective: To determine the epidemiology of child drowning in order to propose possible interventions for Bangladesh and other similar low-income countries.Design: Population-based cross-sectional study.Setting: Rural and urban communities in Bangladesh.Subjects: About 352 000 children 0–17 years were selected from over 171 000 households, using multistage cluster sampling.Main outcome measures: Incidence of fatal drowning.Results: Drowning was the leading cause of death (28.6 per 100 000 child-years) in children aged 1–17 years. The highest incidence (86.3 per 100 000 child-years) was in children aged 1–4 years. More than two-thirds of drownings occurred in ponds and ditches. Most drownings (85%) happened in daylight. In more than one-third of cases of drowning, the child was alone. In the two-thirds of cases in which the child was accompanied, almost half were with children who were 10 years or below. Only 7% of drowned children over 4 years of age knew how to swim.Conclusions: Drowning is a major cause of childhood mortality in Bangladesh. Creating drowning-safe homes, improving supervision of children, modifying the environment, and developing water safety skills for children and the community may be effective interventions for drowning prevention.