Original Article Community perception of childhood drowning and its prevention measures in rural Bangladesh: A qualitative study Aminur Rahman, 1 Shumona Shafinaz, 2 Michael Linnan 3 and Fazlur Rahman 1 1 Centre for Injury Prevention and Research, and 2 UNICEF-Bangladesh, Dhaka, Bangladesh; 3 The Alliance for Safe Children, Bangkok, Thailand Abstract Objectives: To gain an in-depth understanding of peo- ple’s perception of causes and their concepts of preven- tion of childhood drowning in rural Bangladesh. Design: A qualitative study and focus group discussion (FGD) was adopted. Setting: A rural community in Bangladesh. Participants: FGDs were conducted with mothers of children aged under 5 years, adolescent male and female students, fathers and local leaders. One FGD was con- ducted for each group. Out of 53 participants 25 were women. Results: The respondents considered that children of 5–10 years are at risk of drowning. Ponds, ditches and canals were frequently mentioned locations of drown- ing. Most of the drownings were reported to occur around noon. For prevention of childhood drowning the participants suggested that the children should be constantly supervised, unwanted ditches should be filled in, ponds should be fenced and drowning pre- vention awareness in the community be increased by community leaders. They suggested that government should organise campaigns for preventing childhood drowning, promoting swimming instruction activities for children and motivating communities to fence ponds. Conclusions: People interviewed in general know the causes of childhood drowning and its preventive mea- sures, but they do not put their knowledge into preven- tative actions as they fail to recognise this as a major child survival issue and they are never reached with definite actions points to change the behaviours. KEY WORDS: Bangladesh, FGDs, people’s percep- tion, prevention measures, rural. Introduction Drowning has emerged as one of the leading causes of child mortality worldwide. 1–4 Several studies suggest that children of 1–4 years are at the highest risk of drowning. 5,6 In Bangladesh villages are usually surrounded and intersected by canals and rivers. Commonly there are numerous ponds surrounding households. Children also go to these ponds, canals and rivers for bathing and playing. 4 In a recent nation- wide study in Bangladesh, drowning has been identi- fied as the leading cause of death in children of 1–17 years and the highest rate was observed among chil- dren of 1–4 year age group. It was estimated that almost 17 000 children of 1–17 years drown every year (28.6 per 100 000) in Bangladesh and more than 70% (86.3 per 100 000) of them are of 1–4 years. Lack of adult supervision of children under 5 years and lack of swimming ability of children of five and over were the two main causes of childhood drown- ing. 7 Studies showed that more than 80% of the drowning in children occurred in the natural water bodies including ponds, ditches, lakes and rivers. 4,7,8 Studies also showed that almost all drownings occurred during daylight between 06.00 hours and 18.00 hours. Moreover, the childhood drowning peaked during the monsoon. 7,8 In the developed world various types of preventive measures have been under- taken including pool-fencing, 9 pool-fencing regulation or legislation, 10 parent education for drowning preven- tion and drowning prevention campaign 11 to reduce drowning. However, in Bangladesh like in other devel- oping countries, there is no drowning prevention program as it is not yet recognised as a major survival issue for children by the families, communities as well as by the child survival policy planners. To develop and implement an effective intervention it is very important to explore people’s perception of childhood drowning and its prevention. If interventions are devel- Correspondence: Aminur Rahman, Centre for Injury Preven- tion and Research, House 226, Lake Road 15, New DOHS, Mohakhali, Dhaka 1206, Bangladesh. Email: aminur61@ hotmail.com Accepted for publication 1 June 2007. Aust. J. Rural Health (2008) 16, 176–180 © 2008 The Authors Journal Compilation © 2008 National Rural Health Alliance Inc. doi: 10.1111/j.1440-1584.2008.00969.x