Effectiveness of Community Participation in a Surveillance System Initiative to Prevent Drowning in Thailand

Abstract

This study had a 2-group pre-post quasiexperimental design and was conducted in 2 selected areas of Ubon Ratchathani province, Thailand. The objective was to evaluate the extent to which the surveillance system that was developed helped in drowning prevention. The development process involved extensive participation from the community. System efficiency was evaluated, and the drowning rates were compared. The system demonstrated 82.8% system sensitivity and 87% positive-predictive value. There were 90.0% rescues with no injury during the study period. The relative risk of drowning injury suggests that the control area was at 5.6 times more at risk for drowning injury than the intervention area (95% CI = 1.58, 20.12). Local knowledge and participation from the community were found to be key issues in the success of the surveillance system, and such systems can be applied to other areas with similar problems.

The burden of unintentional drowning: global, regional and national estimates of mortality from the Global Burden of Disease 2017 Study

“…While reducing drowning in low-SDI and middle-SDI countries is a challenge, recent work in Bangladesh34 and Thailand29 39 has demonstrated that country-level commitment and appropriate resourcing to unintentional drowning reduction can have a marked impact on mortality and morbidity rates. A recent review5 of drowning in LMICs found only a small number of studies from LMICs (n=62 studies) which met their inclusion criteria, noting that data used in a third of the included studies were from autopsy and medico-legal records, with the rest from surveys and interviews, hospital records, media and ambulance records.…”

Fatal Drownings in Fiji

“…1 Developing and administrating evidence-based, risk-awareness education programs designed for village and classroom settings are methods Fiji can explore. [8][9][10] Studies in China and Vietnam have found that the higher the level of safety knowledge the child and parents have on drowning prevention, the less likely the child will be exposed to the risk or behaving riskily. 8,9 Active community involvement from design to delivery further strengthened the success rate of interventions.…”

“…8,9 Active community involvement from design to delivery further strengthened the success rate of interventions. 10 To reinforce key messages, working in collaboration with key media bodies and leading advocates within the high-risk periods may assist in instilling positive behaviors around bodies of water, while heightening the level of proficient supervision of young children. 1 There were several limitations identified in this study.…”

“…A total of 214 victims were identified in this period; previously, only annual numbers of drowning cases were available. The age brackets were set as per Fiji's definitions: toddlers (0-4 years), school-aged students (5)(6)(7)(8)(9)(10)(11)(12)(13)(14), youths (15-34), adults (35-54), retirement age (55-67), and 68 and older. 6…”

Application of the PRECEDE–PROCEED model in the development of evidence-informed interventions for drowning prevention: a mixed-methods study protocol

“…1 At a national or community level, drowning can be prevented through implementing six interventions and four crosscutting implementation strategies. 1 There are a small number of studies reporting the effectiveness of drowning prevention interventions in LMICs, namely from Bangladesh 21 and Thailand, 22 however more work is required.…”