School of Public Health, Department of Health Policy Planning and Management, University of Health and Allied Sciences, Ho, Volta Region, Ghana
School of Public Health, Department of Health Policy Planning and Management, University of Health and Allied Sciences, Ho, Volta Region, Ghana.
Inj Prev. 2023 Feb;29(1):8-15. doi: 10.1136/ip-2022-044567. Epub 2022 Sep 2.
Drowning is a significant public health challenge globally. In Africa and Ghana, drowning has remained a silent epidemic among poor communities. Limited evidence has challenged advances in drowning knowledge and prevention. While drowning deaths are often widely circulated in the newspapers, drowning data are not systematically organised to constitute a body of evidence sufficient for scientific exploration. Although drowning was frequent, they were poorly understood. We explore the context of drowning from multiple perspectives from the Volta-basin where the largest man-made lake in the world has become a hotspot for drowning.
This study adopts a sequential-mix-qualitative study comprising content analysis of newspaper reports on drowning, structured-observations and in-depth interviews with boaters and fisherfolk. We first explored, the content of newspapers over a 10-year period. This information provided the context of drowning. We followed up with extensive observation of activities on the lake by a team of five. Photovoice qualitative interviews were conducted with 22 boaters, fishers and community members. Thematic content analysis was applied to both the newspaper reports and the in-depth interviews.
Drowning was attributed to both proximate and distal causes. Distal causes were the reasons for movement, while proximate causes were the immediate cause of the drowning. Travelling to farm, market, hospital, church, sell were important distal causes of drowning. Proximate determinants included strong winds, tree stumps, overcrowding, no-adherence to safety procedures, spiritual reasons and high tides. Four types of boat accidents were observed: boat-capsizing, boat-sinking, boat-splitting and boat-catching-fire. Ideas converged and diverged in comparing the newspaper content analysis to the photovoice interviews.
溺水是一个全球性的重大公共卫生挑战。在非洲和加纳，溺水一直是贫困社区的一个无声的流行疾病。有限的证据挑战了溺水知识和预防的进展。虽然溺水死亡经常在报纸上广泛报道，但溺水数据并没有系统地组织起来，不足以构成足够的科学探索证据。尽管溺水事件频繁发生，但人们对其了解甚少。我们从多个角度探讨了溺水问题，研究地点是沃尔特盆地，那里世界上最大的人工湖已成为溺水的热点地区。
本研究采用了顺序混合定性研究方法，包括对报纸上溺水报道的内容分析、对船夫和渔民的结构化观察和深入访谈。我们首先探索了 10 年来报纸上的溺水内容，这些信息提供了溺水的背景情况。然后，我们由一个五人小组对湖上的活动进行了广泛观察。对 22 名船夫、渔民和社区成员进行了照片访谈定性访谈。对报纸报道和深入访谈都应用了主题内容分析。
溺水归因于近端和远端原因。远端原因是行动的原因，而近端原因是溺水的直接原因。前往农场、市场、医院、教堂、销售是溺水的重要远端原因。近端决定因素包括强风、树桩、过度拥挤、不遵守安全程序、精神原因和涨潮。观察到了四种类型的船只事故：船只翻覆、船只沉没、船只分裂和船只着火。在比较报纸内容分析和照片访谈时，观点有趋同也有分歧。
