Understanding Trends in Pediatric Drowning Injuries in North Carolina

Drowning is a leading cause of injury-related death in the pediatric and adolescent population. This epidemiologic study describes the trends in emergency department (ED) visits for pediatric drowning injury in North Carolina and the impact of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic on incidence rate.

Data were obtained using the North Carolina Disease Event Tracking and Epidemiologic Collection Tool, a public health surveillance system, to identify ED visits for drowning injury from 2016 to 2022. We performed a chart review on a subset of patients to further characterize injury.

A total of 1285 ED encounters were identified. In North Carolina, the incidence rate of pediatric drowning has been decreasing, abruptly in 2019 and again in 2020. The postpandemic rate continued in the same downward trend, suggesting that the COVID-19 pandemic did not affect the overall statewide incidence rate of pediatric drowning (P = 0.14). The age distribution of children treated in the ED for drowning injury in North Carolina changed following the pandemic.

This study is limited by the fortunate rarity of pediatric drowning events. Injuries may be underreported because these are only ED presentations. This study relied on provider documentation in electronic health records. The definition of postpandemic is not well defined, and sequelae of the COVID-19 pandemic may not yet be fully appreciated. The incidence of North Carolina ED encounters for drowning injury in the pediatric population has decreased, and the COVID-19 pandemic had a noticeable, although not statistically significant, effect.