Drowning associated risk groups in a five-year time period in Riga and Riga planning region: location and season

Drowning is the 3rd leading cause of unintentional injury of death worldwide. These deaths are often unintentional, classified as accidents and instantaneous. Yet they are potentially preventable. There are several factors that could be associated with risk groups within our population. Aim of this study is to identify whether drowning place and season determines higher chance an individual will drown. A study was carried out involving fatal drowning victim cases from January 1st, 2015 to December 31st, 2019 at the State Centre for Forensic Medical Examination of the Republic of Latvia. All recorded data were analysed using MS Excel and IBM SPSS. In total, 215 victim cases were enclosed in this study. 34,9% of victims drowned in rivers (n=75), from which 66,7% were in Daugava river (n=50). 12,6% drowned in ditches (n=27), 10,2% in lakes (n=22), 9,3% in bathtubs (n=20), 8,4% in sea (n=18), 7,9% in ponds (n=17), 2,8 % in swimming pool (n=6) and 14% in other 24728982 (n=30). 45,1% of victims drowned in summer (n=97), 20,5% in autumn (n=44), 14,4% in winter (n=31), 20% in spring (n=43). In summer and autumn there is 35,1% and 45,5% occurrence in rivers respectively (n=34 and n=20). In winter 29% drown in bathtubs (n=9), in spring 25,6% in ditches (n=11) (p<0,0001). 70,6% of drowning in ponds happen in summer (n=12), 77,8% of drownings in sea happen in summer (n=14) (p<0,0001). Also, the study revealed that 83,3% of drowning accidents in swimming pools happen in autumn (n=5). Swimming in summer and autumn in river, especially Daugava river, determine that these individuals statistically have higher risk to fall into category of drowning victims.  In winter drowning is more often in bathtubs but in spring – ditches. Drowning in swimming pools is more likely in autumn than in any other season.