Drowning Mortality in the United States, 1999–2006

BACKGROUND: Drowning is the fifth leading cause of unintentional fatalities in the US. Our study described demographics and trend analysis in unintentional drowning mortality in the US from 1999–2006, and identifies the changes in deaths for specific population subgroups.

METHODS: Mortality data came from the CDC's Web-based Injury Statistics Query and Reporting System. Trends during 1999–2006 were analyzed by gender, age group and race. Annual percentage change in deaths/rates and simple linear regression was used for time-trend analysis from1999-2006, and examines its significance. Comparisons of proportions between groups were done using Chi-square tests.

RESULTS: During 1999-2006, there were 27514 deaths; 21668 (78.8%) males, 21380 (77.7%) whites, and 4241 (15.4%) aged 00-04 years. The annual number of drowning mortality varied from a high of 3529 in 1999 to a low of 3308 in 2004. Overall, deaths were increased 1.4% from 3529 during 1999 to 3579 deaths during 2006 (p= 0.66). The proportion of deaths was significantly greater among males than females (27.4% vs. 13.7%: p<0.001) and blacks than among all other races combined (32.5% vs. 21.3%: p<0.001). Fatalities reported from California (n=3234;11.75%), Florida (n=2852;10.37) and Texas (n=2395;8.7%) accounted for 20.8% of all such deaths in the US. Sub-group analyses showed that drowning mortality decreased 0.72% for males (p= 0.86) but increased 9.52% for females (p=0.36).

CONCLUSION: Blacks and males appear to have higher risk of drowning mortality. The trend varied among genders, age and racial groups from 1999–2006. Preventive measures and continuous surveillance is warranted to further decrease these drowning mortalities.