An In-Depth Study of Drowning Among Children Under 5 Years of Age In Thailand

Abstract

          This research is a qualitative study which aimed at in-depth identifying the causes of drowning among children age under 5 years. We started conducting the current study by investigating the information from death certificates and digital media during 2018 – 2021 which limited criteria to children’s age under 5 years who lost their lives by drowning as a cause of death. Forty events were reported death, therefore, we performed in-depth telephone interviews directly to the key informants i.e., relevant individuals, community leaders and healthcare personnel from the sub-district health promotion hospital. The snowball sampling method and developed data collection forms were applied. The quantitative and qualitative data were analyzed by descriptive statistics and content analysis method, respectively.

The study found that half of the death cases were living with financially disadvantaged families (50%). The most of their primary caregivers attained elementary school level (42.5%). About 80% were reported that the events often occurred while the primary caregiver was doing household chores/working/off guard. In the age group of 0-2 years, half of the primary caregivers were typically parents or grandparents (50.0%), while over half (59.1%) of the 3-4 years group’s parents was primarily caregiver. The most common drowning site (33.3%) for age 0-2 years was in-house water resources (water tanks, fish tanks, buckets), whereas public wells or ponds (21.8%) were the incident site for children age 3-4 years. Furthermore, it was noted that multiple individuals often drowned simultaneously which frequently involved with children aged 5-7 years because the older children usually lead the younger ones to play together. Moreover, most of primary caregivers or those witnessing the incidents were unaware of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) techniques. It is worth mentioning that nearly all death cases were caused by accidental drownings, 3 cases were lost by natural disasters (flood), and 2 fatal cases might have been caused by intentional drownings.

The in-depth analysis revealed that the drowning incidence are associated with their primary caregiver(s) presented lack of supervision or inappropriate care, leaving young children unattended, allowing them to be alone with pets or toys, entrusting them to unprepared caregivers (such as those who are responsible for multiple children or elderly individuals), wandering close to water sources, or visiting water recreational areas, natural disasters (such as floods or forest streams), and deaths with unclear causes.