George Institute for Global Health, Newtown, New South Wales, Australia.
Injury Division, The George Institute for Global Health India, New Delhi, India.
Inj Prev. 2021 Oct;27(5):413-418. doi: 10.1136/injuryprev-2020-043911. Epub 2020 Sep 17.
The Sundarbans in India is a rural, forested region where children are exposed to a high risk of drowning due to its waterlogged geography. Current data collection systems capture few drowning deaths in this region.
A community-based survey was conducted in the Sundarbans to determine the drowning mortality rate for children aged 1 to 4 years and 5 to 9 years. A community knowledge approach was used. Meetings were held with community residents and key informants to identify drowning deaths in the population. Identified deaths were verified by the child's household through a structured survey, inquiring on the circumstances around the drowning death.
The drowning mortality rate for children aged 1 to 4 years was 243.8 per 100 000 children and for 5 to 9 years was 38.8 per 100 000 children. 58.0% of deaths were among children aged 1 to 2 years. No differences in rates between boys and girls were found. Most children drowned in ponds within 50 metres of their homes. Children were usually unaccompanied with their primary caretaker engaged in household work. A minority of children were treated by formal health providers.
Drowning is a major cause of death among children in the Sundarbans, particularly those aged 1 to 4 years. Interventions keeping children in safe spaces away from water are urgently required. The results illustrate how routine data collection systems grossly underestimate drowning deaths, emphasising the importance of community-based surveys in capturing these deaths in rural low- and middle-income country contexts. The community knowledge approach provides a low-resource, validated methodology for this purpose.
印度的孙德尔本斯是一个农村森林地区，由于其沼泽地形，儿童面临很高的溺水风险。目前的数据收集系统在该地区很少捕捉到溺水死亡事件。
在孙德尔本斯进行了一项基于社区的调查，以确定 1 至 4 岁和 5 至 9 岁儿童的溺水死亡率。采用社区知识方法。与社区居民和主要知情人举行会议，以确定该人群中的溺水死亡人数。通过对儿童家庭进行结构化调查来验证已识别的死亡人数，询问溺水死亡的情况。
1 至 4 岁儿童的溺水死亡率为每 10 万名儿童 243.8 人，5 至 9 岁儿童的溺水死亡率为每 10 万名儿童 38.8 人。58.0%的死亡发生在 1 至 2 岁的儿童中。男孩和女孩的死亡率没有差异。大多数儿童在距离其家 50 米以内的池塘中溺水。儿童通常无人陪伴，其主要照顾者忙于家务。少数儿童接受了正规卫生提供者的治疗。
溺水是孙德尔本斯儿童的主要死因之一，尤其是 1 至 4 岁的儿童。迫切需要采取让儿童远离水域的安全空间的干预措施。结果表明，常规数据收集系统严重低估了溺水死亡人数，强调了在农村低收入和中等收入国家背景下，基于社区的调查对于捕捉这些死亡事件的重要性。社区知识方法为此提供了一种低资源、经过验证的方法。
