Drowning Deaths
By Mr Lasith Dissanayake
Drowning is a significant and often overlooked public health issue, contributing to illness and death worldwide. In August 2023, funded by the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI), Prof. Nibedita S. Ray-Bennett began the project “Reviewing Gaps in Drowning Data Collection Within Low- and Middle-Income Countries (LMIC)” in collaboration with Dr Colleen Saunders from the University of Cape Town, Dr Frederick Oporia from Makerere University, Dr Aminur Rahman from the Centre for Injury Prevention and Research in Bangladesh, and Dr Winifred Ekezie from Aston University. The Research Assistants for this project were Mr Lasith Dissanayake and Ms Lauren Macleod.
The project was concluded this year with a publication in the BMJ Injury Prevention Journal.
The project primarily concentrated on the review of the utilisation of the Verbal Autopsy (VA) instrument to identify risk factors associated with injury-related fatalities due to drowning. The VA instrument is frequently employed to ascertain causes of death in LMICs (WHO, 2023), whether as part of extensive household surveys or within geographically defined health and demographic surveillance systems (WHO, 2024). The review findings suggest that additional research is necessary to elucidate the “causes and circumstances” of both fatal and nonfatal drownings, utilising VA instruments.
This will enable the implementation of context-specific interventions and facilitate a comprehensive understanding of the actual burden of severe injuries and lifelong disabilities. The findings bear significant implications for the WHO, INDEPTH Network, and Population Health Metrics Research Consortium (PHMRC) to revise and enhance their VA instruments, thereby addressing the identified challenges and improving qualitative data collection procedures at the local level.
The results of the scoping review was published in BMJ Injury Prevention and can be read through this link: Verbal autopsy instruments for ‘causes and circumstances’ surrounding drowning deaths in low– and middle–income countries: a scoping review | Injury Prevention
On November 23, 2025, Prof. Nibedita S. Ray-Bennett submitted a concept note on “A Pilot Study to Co-Develop and Validate Circumstances for Fatal Drowning Instrument (C4FDI) and a Complementary Training Manual,” targeting children and one additional high-risk group to RNLI for approval. Prof. Ray-Bennett developed the concept note in collaboration with Prof. Rakhi Dandona and Dr Anil Kumar (Injury Prevention Research Centre, Public Health Foundation of India) (IPRC-PHFI) and Dr Aminur Rahman (Centre for Injury Prevention Research, Bangladesh).
On December 2-3, 2025, Dr Winifred Ekezie, Mr Lasith Dissanayake and Ms Lauren MacLeod represented ADN at the Climate Change Adaptation and Drowning Prevention Research Workshop led by RNLI in Birmingham. Over two days, they worked to identify evidence gaps, highlight research opportunities, and foster research collaborations. They had a chance to present the findings of the scoping review. The workshop aimed to stimulate research into drowning in the Global South and its prevention with a focus on the impacts of climate change.
Key discussion topics included mechanisms of drowning, community-led risk assessments, economics, and disaster risk management. We look forward to continuing to work with and support RNLI on the deliberations post-workshop.
References
WHO (2023) Verbal autopsy standards. Available at: https://www.who.int/standards/classifications/other-classifications/verbal-autopsy-standards-ascertaining-and-attributing-causes-of-death-tool (Accessed: 10 August 2023).
WHO (2024) Civil registration: why counting births and deaths is important, Media Centre. Available at: https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/civil-registration-why-counting-births-and-deaths-is-important (Accessed: 8 August 2023).