The burden of unintentional drowning: global, regional and national estimates of mortality from the Global Burden of Disease 2017 Study
Authors: Franklin Richard Charles , Peden Amy E , Hamilton Erin B , Bisignano Catherine , Castle Chris D , Dingels Zachary V , Hay Simon I , Liu Zichen , Mokdad Ali H , Roberts Nicholas L S , Sylte Dillon O , Vos Theo , Abady Gdiom Gebreheat , Abosetugn Akine Eshete , Ahmed Rushdia , Alahdab Fares , Andrei Catalina Liliana , Antonio Carl Abelardo T , Arabloo Jalal , Arba Aseb Arba Kinfe , Badiye Ashish D , Bakkannavar Shankar M , Banach Maciej , Banik Palash Chandra , Banstola Amrit , Barker-Collo Suzanne Lyn , Barzegar Akbar , Bayati Mohsen , Bhardwaj Pankaj , Bhaumik Soumyadeep , Bhutta Zulfiqar A , Bijani Ali , Boloor Archith , Carvalho Félix , Chowdhury Mohiuddin Ahsanul Kabir , Chu Dinh-Toi , Colquhoun Samantha M , Dagne Henok , Dagnew Baye , Dandona Lalit , Dandona Rakhi , Daryani Ahmad , Dharmaratne Samath Dhamminda , Dibaji Forooshani Zahra Sadat , Do Hoa Thi , Driscoll Tim Robert , Eagan Arielle Wilder , El-Khatib Ziad , Fernandes Eduarda , Filip Irina , Fischer Florian , Gebremichael Berhe , Gupta Gaurav , Haagsma Juanita A , Hassan Shoaib , Hendrie Delia , Hoang Chi Linh , Hole Michael K , Holla Ramesh , Hostiuc Sorin , Househ Mowafa , Ilesanmi Olayinka Stephen , Inbaraj Leeberk Raja , Irvani Seyed Sina Naghibi , Islam M Mofizul , Ivers Rebecca Q , Jayatilleke Achala Upendra , Joukar Farahnaz , Kalhor Rohollah , Kanchan Tanuj , Kapoor Neeti , Kasaeian Amir , Khan Maseer , Khan Ejaz Ahmad , Khubchandani Jagdish , Krishan Kewal , Kumar G Anil , Lauriola Paolo , Lopez Alan D , Madadin Mohammed , Majdan Marek , Maled Venkatesh , Manafi Navid , Manafi Ali , McKee Martin , Meles Hagazi Gebre , Menezes Ritesh G , Meretoja Tuomo J , Miller Ted R , Mithra Prasanna , Mohammadian-Hafshejani Abdollah , Mohammadpourhodki Reza , Mohebi Farnam , Molokhia Mariam , Mustafa Ghulam , Negoi Ionut , Nguyen Cuong Tat , Nguyen Huong Lan Thi , Olagunju Andrew T , Olagunju Tinuke O , Padubidri Jagadish Rao , Pakshir Keyvan , Pathak Ashish , Polinder Suzanne , Pribadi Dimas Ria Angga , Rabiee Navid , Radfar Amir , Rana Saleem Muhammad , Rickard Jennifer , Safari Saeed , Salamati Payman , Samy Abdallah M , Sarker Abdur Razzaque , Schwebel David C , Senthilkumaran Subramanian , Shaahmadi Faramarz , Shaikh Masood Ali , Shin Jae Il , Singh Pankaj Kumar , Soheili Amin , Stokes Mark A , Suleria Hafiz Ansar Rasul , Tarigan Ingan Ukur , Temsah Mohamad-Hani , Tesfay Berhe Etsay , Valdez Pascual R , Veisani Yousef , Ye Pengpeng , Yonemoto Naohiro , Yu Chuanhua , Yusefzadeh Hasan , Zaman Sojib Bin , Zhang Zhi-Jiang , James Spencer L 
Published: February 2020

Background

Drowning is a leading cause of injury-related mortality globally. Unintentional drowning (International Classification of Diseases (ICD) 10 codes W65-74 and ICD9 E910) is one of the 30 mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive causes of injury-related mortality in the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) study. This study’s objective is to describe unintentional drowning using GBD estimates from 1990 to 2017.

Methods

Unintentional drowning from GBD 2017 was estimated for cause-specific mortality and years of life lost (YLLs), age, sex, country, region, Socio-demographic Index (SDI) quintile, and trends from 1990 to 2017. GBD 2017 used standard GBD methods for estimating mortality from drowning.

Results

Globally, unintentional drowning mortality decreased by 44.5% between 1990 and 2017, from 531 956 (uncertainty interval (UI): 484 107 to 572 854) to 295 210 (284 493 to 306 187) deaths. Global age-standardised mortality rates decreased 57.4%, from 9.3 (8.5 to 10.0) in 1990 to 4.0 (3.8 to 4.1) per 100 000 per annum in 2017. Unintentional drowning-associated mortality was generally higher in children, males and in low-SDI to middle-SDI countries. China, India, Pakistan and Bangladesh accounted for 51.2% of all drowning deaths in 2017. Oceania was the region with the highest rate of age-standardised YLLs in 2017, with 45 434 (40 850 to 50 539) YLLs per 100 000 across both sexes.

Conclusions

There has been a decline in global drowning rates. This study shows that the decline was not consistent across countries. The results reinforce the need for continued and improved policy, prevention and research efforts, with a focus on low- and middle-income countries.