Understanding Natural Disaster or Weather-Related Drowning Deaths Among Children.

Area of Science:

• Public Health
• Environmental Health
• Pediatric Safety

Background:

• Drowning is a leading cause of death during flood disasters, with limited understanding of child fatalities.
• Child death review teams analyze child deaths to identify circumstances and risk factors for prevention.

Purpose of the Study:

• To characterize child drowning deaths directly and indirectly attributed to natural disasters or weather incidents.
• To compare these deaths with other drowning incidents to inform prevention strategies.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of data from the National Fatality Review-Case Reporting System (2005-2021) for children aged 0-17 years.
• Identification of 130 direct and 14 indirect drowning deaths linked to natural disasters/weather incidents.
• Statistical comparison of characteristics using frequencies, proportions, and chi-squared tests.

Main Results:

• Children in direct-incident drownings were older (>4 years), more likely in rural/frontier settings, and more likely to have supervision.
• These incidents often involved multiple child or adult fatalities.
• Indirect deaths were frequently linked to damaged protective barriers.

Conclusions:

• Child drowning deaths related to natural disasters have distinct characteristics compared to other drowning deaths.
• Tailored drowning prevention strategies are recommended for natural disaster contexts.
• Enhanced surveillance and post-storm remediation of barriers are suggested prevention measures.