Where children drown, United States, 1995.

CONTEXT: Drowning is the second leading cause of unintentional injury death among children ages 1 to 19 years. Details about the specific site of submersion are important for implementation of primary prevention efforts, but are not routinely available from national data. OBJECTIVES: To provide national data about the specific sites of drowning among US children and to examine site-specific drowning rates by age, race, and gender. SETTING: United States, 1995. DESIGN: Information was abstracted from death certificates for unintentional drownings among children <20 years of age. The site of drowning was coded from free text on death certificates. Proportional distributions of the site of drowning by age, region, gender, and race were examined. Site-specific drowning rates were calculated by age, race, and gender. Denominators were based on US Census Bureau, June 1995 estimates of the US population. RESULTS: For 1995, death certificates were obtained for 1420 unintentional drownings among children <20 years of age, 98% of the number of drowning deaths reported by the National Center for Health Statistics for the same year. Site of drowning was specified on 1308 (92%) death certificates. Fifty-five percent of infant drownings were in bathtubs. Among children between the ages of 1 to 4 years, 56% of drownings were in artificial pools and 26% were in other bodies of freshwater. Among older children, 63% of drownings were in natural bodies of freshwater. Site-specific drowning rates varied by race. Importantly, after the age of 5 years, the risk of drowning in a swimming pool was greater among black males compared with white males with rate ratios of 15.1 (95% confidence interval: 6.7-38.5) among 10- to 14-year-olds and 12.8 (95% confidence interval: 6.5-26.9) among 15- to 19-year-olds. CONCLUSION: The variety of sites in which children drown, even within specific age groups, emphasizes the need for a multifaceted approach to prevention. Reductions in the relatively high rates of drowning among black adolescent males will require targeted interventions to prevent swimming pool drownings among this group.

Expanding the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System to monitor all nonfatal injuries treated in US hospital emergency departments.

STUDY OBJECTIVE: Injury is a major cause of morbidity and mortality in the United States. Although the National Vital Statistics System provides data on injury-related deaths, a national surveillance system is needed for timely identification of emerging nonfatal injury problems and continuous monitoring of severe nonfatal injuries. This work assesses the feasibility of expanding the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System (NEISS) to monitor all types and causes of nonfatal injuries treated in US hospital emergency departments and reports national estimates generated by a pilot study of this system. METHODS: At a stratified sample of US hospital EDs, persons receiving first-time treatment for an injury were monitored from May 1 through July 31, 1997. National estimates of the annual number and rate of ED-treated injuries overall, by patient characteristics, injury diagnosis, and external cause of injury were generated, and the sensitivity of the system for detecting ED-treated injuries was assessed. RESULTS: An estimated 29. 1 million injuries were treated in US EDs in 1997 (rate of 108.6/1, 000 population). The leading causes of injury were falls, being struck by or striking against an object or person, cutting or piercing, and motor vehicle traffic. Of 593 cases of injury detected by investigators from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention during visits to 6 of the 21 NEISS hospitals in the study, 490 were also detected by NEISS coders for an overall sensitivity of 82.6%. CONCLUSION: Expanding the NEISS is a feasible means of timely and continuous monitoring of all types and causes of nonfatal injuries treated in US hospital EDs.