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Gitanjali Saluja, PhD, Ruth A. Brenner, MD, MPH, Ann C. Trumble, PhD, Gordon S. Smith, MB, ChB, MPH, Tom Schroeder, MS and Christopher Cox, PhD

At the time of the study, Gitanjali Saluja, Ruth A. Brenner, Ann C. Trumble, and Christopher Cox were with the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Md. Gordon S. Smith was with the Liberty Mutual Research Institute for Safety, Hopkinton, Mass. Tom Schroeder was with the US Consumer Product Safety Commission, Bethesda.

Correspondence: Requests for reprints should be sent to Gitanjali Saluja, PhD, NICHD/NIH/DHHS, Division of Epidemiology, Statistics and Prevention Research, 6100 Executive Blvd, Rm 7B03 MSC 7510, Bethesda, MD 20892-7510 (email: salujag{at}mail.nih.gov).

Objective. We examined circumstances surrounding swimming pool drownings among US residents aged 5 to 24 years to understand why Black males and other racial/ethnic groups have high drowning rates.

Methods. We obtained data about drowning deaths in the United States (1995–1998) from death certificates, medical examiner reports, and newspaper clippings collected by the US Consumer Product Safety Commission.

Results. During the study period, 678 US residents aged 5 to 24 years drowned in pools. Seventy-five percent were male, 47% were Black, 33% were White, and 12% were Hispanic. Drowning rates were highest among Black males, and this increased risk persisted after we controlled for income. The majority of Black victims (51%) drowned in public pools, the majority of White victims (55%) drowned in residential pools, and the majority of Hispanic victims (35%) drowned in neighborhood pools (e.g., an apartment complex pool). Foreign-born males also had an increased risk for drowning compared with American-born males.

Conclusions. Targeted interventions are needed to reduce the incidence of swimming pool drownings across racial/ethnic groups, particularly adult supervision at public pools.

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