Table 1.
Summary of studies exclusively reporting drowning in Africa.
| Authors, Reference, Year | Country | Study Design | Year | Study Population | Rates and Proportion of Drowning |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Davis and Smith, 1982 [23] | South Africa (Cape Town) | Descriptive cross-sectional study | 1979–1981 (3 years) | 1,500,000 people (population in Cape Town) | 285 (0.019%) drowning deaths § |
| Grainger 1985 [60] | Seychelles | Descriptive cross-sectional study | 1959–1978 (20 years) | 119 drowning deaths | 5.95 ± 2.2 drownings per year (mean drowning rate) |
| Davis and Smith 1985 [24] | South Africa (Cape Town) | Descriptive cross-sectional study | 1980–1983 (4 years) | 1,600,000 people (population in Cape town) | Male: 38.7/100,000 |
| Female: 8.3/100,000 | |||||
| Meel BL, 2008 [27] | South Africa (Mthatha) | Descriptive cross-sectional study | 1993–2004 (12 years) | 400,000 people (population in Mthatha) | Mean drowning rate: 7.1/100,000 |
| Seleye-Fubara et al., 2012 [50] | Nigeria (Niger-delta region) | Descriptive cross-sectional study | 1998–2009 (12 years) | 85 drowning deaths | 80% were unintentional drowning |
| Donson and Nickerk, 2013 [25] | South Africa | Descriptive cross-sectional study | 2001–2005 (5 years) | Total population in five cities (Johannesburg, Durban, Cape Town, Port Elizabeth and Pretoria) | 2.1/100,000 |
| Joanknecht et al., 2015 [30] | South Africa: Cape Town | Descriptive cross-sectional study | 2007–2013 (6 years) | 75 children admitted for a submersion incident (near drowning and drowning) | 10.7% of the study population drowned |
| Lin et al., 2015 [22] | Egypt South Africa |
Ecological study | 2009–2011 (3 years) 2007–2009 (3 years) |
Entire population in the country Entire population in the country |
1.5/100,000 2.5/100,000 |
| Morris et al., 2016 [26] | South Africa (Pretoria) | Descriptive cross-sectional study | 2002–2011 | 23,050 registered deaths 278 deaths due to external causes |
1.2% (278) of the deaths were due to drowning |
| Kobusingye et al., 2017 [54] ‡ | Uganda (Buikwe; Kampala; Mukono; Wakiso) | Mixed methods: Quantitative—Cross-sectional ǂ |
Not stated | 2804 people (population in the community) | 502/100,000 |
| Wu et al., 2017 [21] | Egypt South Africa |
Ecological study | 2000 and 2013 | WHO world standard population WHO world standard population |
Unintentional drowning rate 2000: 3.89/100,000 2013: 2.93/100,000 2000: 0.33/100,000 2013: 3.38/100,000 |
| Saunders et al., 2018 [43] | South Africa (Western Cape) | Descriptive cross-sectional | 2010–2016 (6 years) | Total population in Western Cape (not stated by the authors) | 3.2/100,000 |
§ Drowning proportions was calculated using data provided in the article. ‡ For the purpose of the review, only the quantitative aspect of the study was included in the review.