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The article discusses the importance of drowning prevention as a global health promotion imperative, highlighting the significant progress made in this area over the past few decades. It emphasizes the need for evidence-informed strategies to address the complex determinants of drowning, including social, environmental, and commercial factors. Recent United Nations resolutions and global initiatives have underscored the urgency of preventing drowning deaths, particularly among vulnerable populations. The article calls for equitable access to prevention resources, global collaboration, and increased investment in research and implementation efforts to further advance drowning prevention worldwide. [Extracted from the article]

Issues: The surrounding social and commercial context, including alcohol advertising, heavily influences alcohol consumption. Alcohol use is a major risk factor for both fatal and non‐fatal drowning, particularly for young people. Approach: We conducted a scoping review to explore the peer‐reviewed literature on the use of alcohol by young people (aged 15–34 years) in the context of aquatic environments. Five electronic academic databases were searched for English‐language studies conducted in high‐income countries and published in the last 15 years (since 2008). The MetaQAT framework was used to assess methodological quality of included studies. Key Findings: The review included a total of 24 studies, including those addressing the prevalence of and/or risk factors for alcohol use in aquatic environments among young people (n = 13); the epidemiology of alcohol‐related unintentional drowning in young people (n = 9); and interventions to reduce alcohol‐related harm around water (n = 3). Findings suggest that young people commonly consume alcohol around water, particularly young men. We found multiple influences on this behaviour, including the perception of risk, location of aquatic activity and presence of others, particularly peers. Implications: Understanding the literature addressing alcohol use around water among young people will assist in identifying and setting priorities for drowning prevention, including the need to mitigate the effects of alcohol advertising which promotes drinking in and around water. Conclusion: There is a clear imperative to address the use of alcohol by young people in aquatic environments. These findings have key implications for public health policy, advocacy and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adult drowning is a complex and multifactorial public health challenge requiring community, national and global efforts to mitigate impacts. This study updates the evidence base for public health interventions that address adult fatal and non-fatal drowning. A systematic review was undertaken of the peer-reviewed literature for English-language primary studies published between 2011 and 2021describing a drowning intervention with adults. Twenty-two studies were included. Most studies (n = 16) were conducted in high-income countries. Yearly trends in drowning prevention intervention publications were analysed with 2015 (n = 6) the peak publishing year. Over half of the study designs were pre-post (n = 15). Intervention duration ranged from 4 hours to 11 years. Ten studies described either behaviour change theory or formative evaluation to inform design. Thirteen studies targeted interventions at a population level, seven at a group level and two at individual level. Studies identified a range of prevention strategies, categorised as behavioural (n = 9) (e.g., swimming lessons), socio-ecological (n = 8) (e.g., mandatory personal flotation devices) and mixed (n = 5) (e.g., awareness campaign and barriers to prevent access to water). A range of outcomes were described including changes in awareness, water safety knowledge, attitudes, water safety behaviours and skills, environmental, policy and regulation changes and drowning rates. Findings indicate a small but important increase in the evaluation and publication of effective interventions to prevent adult drowning. The complexity of the issues surrounding drowning requires multi-strategy and context -specific adult focused prevention interventions. Contemporary evidence that identifies effective interventions that contribute to prevention efforts is an essential first step in addressing the challenge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: Water safety mass-media campaigns are used in public health though few are reported on in the literature. A key component is the use of television commercials (TVCs) to promote supervision of children in and around water. This article reports on the proximal impacts—awareness, comprehension, acceptance and intention—of two new Keep Watch TVCs, aired in Western Australia during the summer of 2017/18. Subjects and methods: Post-campaign, cross-sectional data were collected via online and intercept surveys. Data were collected between February and April 2018 (9 weeks). Self-reported responses (n = 257) from adults who were a parent/grandparent/carer of a child < 5 years old in a home setting were evaluated to assess campaign awareness, comprehension, acceptance and intention consistent with a hierarchy of effects and monitoring of media effects approach. Results: Campaign awareness was 32.3% and comprehension was 83.0% TVC1 and 82.1% TVC2. Of those who comprehended the TVC messages 50% intended to take action. Findings demonstrated modest but positive campaign effects, given the relatively short time frame and limited media spend. Conclusion: This study is one of few water safety media campaigns to provide insights into awareness, comprehension, intention and acceptability of mass-media campaigns to prevent drowning. Findings suggest traditional media continue to play a role in reinforcing drowning prevention messages to parents particularly in increasing awareness of how to keep children safe in and around water. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Issue Addressed: Drowning is a leading cause of death globally. Opportunities to promote drowning prevention in news media may be overlooked for attention-grabbing headlines, imagery and narrative. This study examines news media coverage of fatal drowning events in Western Australia (WA).Methods: Coronial fatal drowning data in WA were extracted for two summer time periods (2014-2016) by date, age, gender, location and description. Corresponding print and online news articles were captured using: (i) Media Alert; (ii) Google News; (iii) Factiva. A content and frame analysis protocol was developed. A qualitative approach was taken to analyse the news angle. A subgroup analysis was undertaken for drowning focused articles.Results: The final sample (n = 50) news articles matched 17 individual drowning events (T1, n = 9; T2, n = 8). Drowning stories rarely appeared on page 1 (n = 2), but were located in the first 2-10 pages (n = 20) (66.6%). In the subanalysis, one-fifth (22%) of the articles employed a news angle relating to community spirit and celebration of life. There were 32 mentions of "who was responsible for the drowning event." Environmental factors were most cited for "what was responsible" (20.4%). Experts were cited in 66.7% of articles and drowning prevention strategies were mentioned in nine of the 50 articles.Conclusion: Drowning was considered newsworthy; however, not the front page news. Reporting infrequently prioritised drowning prevention or discussed prevention strategies. SO WHAT?: Working closely with news outlets to embed drowning prevention messages in news stories during high-risk periods such as summer is an imperative. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]