How To Prevent Drowning, The Leading Cause Of Death For Young Kids

Are you, your family members or your friends ready to dive into a swimming pool, lake, river or some other body of water to cool off from the Summer heat? Well, before doing so, you may want to take a deeper dive into the statistics on drowning.

Indeed, drowning deaths have continued to be a significant—and in some cases worsening— problem around the world. For example, in the U.S., each year from 2020 through 2022, drowning has resulted in over 4,500 reported deaths, according to a study published in the Center for Disease Control’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR). That’s an increase of 500 deaths per year from 2019. Yet, the risks of drowning seem to remain deep from the surface of public awareness—which is something that Bloomberg Philanthropies has been seeking to change since 2012.

“The problem of drowning has not gotten enough attention and has not been fully recognized as a public health issue,” explained Kelly Larson, the injury prevention lead at Bloomberg Philanthropies. “Data on drowning have been limited, and drowning prevention has been underfunded.”

And guess what, drowning has disproportionately affected those in economically or socially disadvantaged communities both in the U.S. and around the world. Larson emphasized that “around 90% of drowning deaths occur in low and middle income countries.” Yep, yet another public health problem where those already worse off have it even worse. So, how can this situation be changed? Well, here are five ways:

1. Teach more people how to swim.

Not surprisingly, not being able to swim does increase your risk of drowning. And human kids aren’t born ready to swim. You can’t just let them stroll into water and expect them to be little Michael Phelps or Katie Ladeckys. Drowning has already been the leading cause of death among one to four year olds in the U.S. for a while now, according to the CDC. So, many kids may be having too close encounters with too much water before they have learned how to swim.

Lack of swimming ability is not just a young kids issue, though. National surveys have revealed that around 55% of adults in the U.S. have never taken a swimming lesson. And where are you more likely to find an adult who can’t swim? Surprise, surprise, economically or socially disadvantaged communities.

Therefore, one emphasis of Bloomberg Philanthropies’ partnership with the CDC Foundation and the CDC is to help increase basic swimming and water safety instruction skills in the following ten states that have had higher numbers of drowning deaths: Alaska, Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Michigan, New York, Oklahoma and Texas. “These 10 states have accounted for about half of all drowning deaths in the U.S.,” explained Kelly Larson, the injury prevention lead at Bloomberg Philanthropies. “We have been working with the CDC, CDC Foundation and community organizations to provide swim instructions for 6 to 15 year olds.” Bloomberg Philanthropies have been doing similar work in Vietnam as well.

2. Supervise kids more closely.

Kids will be kids. Without proper supervision, they can get themselves in all sorts of trouble. And in this case, trouble can mean water. “Children supervised by community supervision program have 88% less risk of drowning.” Larson indicated. “It only takes a moment for someone to drown.” It also doesn’t take a whole lot of water to drown. That’s why you should keep track of what kids are doing around water, even if they can swim. Heck a kid who can already swim can still jump into water that’s way too turbulent or injure himself or herself to the point of not being able to stay afloat.

Simply telling parents to watch their kids better won’t be enough, though. Parents don’t have 24-hour security cameras built into their heads and have to do other stuff like work, eat, sleep and bury their heads into their hands. As the proverb goes “It takes a village to raise a child”—which suggests that supervision should be built into the surrounding community as well. So, the Bloomberg Philanthropies initiative has been working with community partners such as child care centers in Bangladesh to improve supervision of children.

3. Protect and restrict access to pools and other potential swimming areas.

Again kids will be kids. Unless you have each of them establish a 24-hour live stream YouTube channel of themselves, it is near impossible to watch them every single moment. Therefore, in addition to supervision, putting up barriers such as four-sided pool fencing that’s appropriately secure can make it more difficult for kids to get into trouble—meaning water that they’re not supposed to be in yet. This has been part of the Bloomberg Philanthropies supported work in the U.S. as well as other countries.

4. Provide personal flotation devices and other safety equipment.

You can get by with a little help from a personal flotation device isn’t exactly how the Beatles song goes. But it does apply to everyone, especially who can’t yet confidently swim in all sorts of water conditions. It even applies to those who already know how to swim. As Larson emphasized, “Anyone can drown.” A change in water conditions, a little exhaustion or a little absent mindedness can bring down even those quite competent in swimming. Thus, part of the Bloomberg Philanthropies-supported work has been to help stock different swimming areas with personal flotation devices and other types of safety equipment.

5. Enhance data collection.

While the aforementioned approaches can clearly help, drowning still remains a murky water situation in many ways. A big problem is a four-letter word that should be the opposite of dirty: data or the lack thereof. Trying to prevent drowning without enough data on why people are drowning, what current risks are and what interventions may work is sort of like trying to win a football game without knowing the score or any statistics. “One goal has been to strengthen data collection and better understand the circumstances of drowning incidents,” said Larson. “And review state-based legislation and policies that can prevent drowning.” This has included enhancing data collection in LMICs such as Uganda and Ghana as well using more data to help develop strategies to address drowning issues. Larson added that this has already led to insights such as finding out that in some countries fisher folks—meaning those who fish as a profession—are at greater risk for drowning.

More data may also help bring the problem of drowning more the surface of public awareness. Swimming pools and other bodies of water can be important refuges especially during the heat waves of Summer. But it is important to understand what risks may lay beneath.