RESEARCH:

Child Drowning: Evidence for a newly recognized cause of child mortality in low and middle income countries in Asia

UNIVERSITY OR ORGANISATION: UNICEF Office of Research, The Working Group on Child Drowning in LMICs, International Drowning Research Centre, Bangladesh

Drowning is a leading cause of death among children in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) in Asia, but current data greatly underestimate mortality due to drowning. This is due to the way drowning data is collected, classified and reported as well as the difficulty in correcting and adjusting the data. Large numbers of these deaths could be prevented annually if these drowning interventions were included in current country programmes. When implemented at national scale and as an integral part of country programmes, the prevention of these drowning deaths, which mostly occur in early childhood, would result in a rapid decrease in early childhood mortality and contribute to meeting Millennium Development Goal 4 (MDG4). In older children, where drowning is a leading cause of death before adolescence, it would allow a larger proportion of children to reach adulthood.

Access the comprehensive research library