Introduction
Paediatric drowning is an injury associated with significant morbidity and mortality.
Objective
The objective is to describe drowning trends, including associations with inpatient hospitalisation or fatality, in a state-wide paediatric cohort to inform prevention strategies.
Methods
In this retrospective cohort study using the Health Services Cost Review Commission database, we used International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision (ICD-10) codes to identify patients aged 0–19 years with an outpatient (including emergency department) or inpatient medical encounter following a non-fatal or fatal drowning event between 2016 and 2019. Descriptive statistics and logistic regression were used to summarise the data and evaluate associations with inpatient hospitalisation or fatality.
Results
There were 541 medical encounters for drowning events, including 483 non-fatal outpatient encounters, 42 non-fatal inpatient encounters and 16 fatal cases. Overall, most patients were boys, 0–4 years, white and lived in urban settings. White children accounted for 66% of encounters among those aged 0–4 years, whereas non-white children accounted for 62% of visits among those aged 10–19 years. Non-white children were more likely than white children to experience a fatal drowning (OR 3.6, 95% CI: 1.2 to 11.5). Adolescents were more likely than younger children to be hospitalised (OR 3.1, 95% CI: 1.6 to 6.5) and had higher charges in outpatient (p=0.002) and inpatient settings (p=0.003).
Discussion
Our study revealed high fatality rates among non-white children and high admission rates among adolescents.
