Primary or Secondary Drowning

Not yet recruiting

• Conditions: Drowning; Anoxia; Drowning or Immersion of Unknown Intent; Drowning in Swimming Pool; Drowning/Diving/SCUBA Accident; Drowning and Submersion While in Swimming-Pool; Drowning; Drowning, Near; Drowning and Submersion Due to Sailboat Sinking; Drowning and Submersion Due to Fall Off Ship; Drowning; Asphyxia
• Interventions: Other: Drowning

• Registration Number: NCT06310499
• Lead Sponsor: Prehospital Center, Region Zealand

Brief Summary

According to WHO's rules, any death certificate must state the underlying cause of death and contributory causes of death may also be stated.

Differentiating between primary and secondary drowning is difficult, as information preceding the drowning incident is rarely available. Yet, knowing the most frequent causes of secondary drowning may provide useful information to healthcare professionals working in prehospital Emergency Medical Services, as this may affect prehospital treatment.

Detailed Description

The annual death statistics are based solely on the underlying cause of death, that is the disease or condition which started the process that led to death. The conditions that directly caused the death are also to be stated by the physician on the death certificate and may be included in the statistics. In research projects, data on those contributory causes of death may be drawn from the register. It is now the medical doctor who has verified the death and issued the death certificate indicating the underlying and contributory causes of death, who also classifies these causes in accordance with ICD-10 and fills in the coded data on the electronic death certificate. The Danish Register of Causes of Death is, thus, updated without central validation of the classification and relies entirely on the coding done by individual physicians.

This study aims to characterise fatal drowning incidents as primary or secondary drownings and report the frequencies of secondary drowning causes.

Study Timeline

• Status Verified: 2024-03
• Study First Submitted: 2024-03-07
• Study First Submitted QC: 2024-03-13
• Last Update Submitted: 2024-03-13
• Study First Posted: 2024-03-15
• Last Update Posted: 2024-03-15
• Study Start: 2024-08-01
• Primary Completion: 2025-12-31
• Study Completion: 2025-12-31

Recruitment & Eligibility

• Status: NOT_YET_RECRUITING
• Sex: All
• Target Recruitment: 700

Inclusion Criteria

• All drowning patients registered in the Danish Prehospital Drowning Data AND
• Having a fatal outcome within 30 days after the drowning incident AND
• Having a valid civil registration number in the Danish Prehospital Drowning Data
• Being able to link data from the Danish Register of Causes of Death

Exclusion Criteria

• Patients alive 30 days after the drowning incident
• Patients with an invalid civil registration number in the Danish Prehospital Drowning Data
• Patients where data cannot be retrieved from the Danish Register of Causes of Death

Study & Design

• Study Type: OBSERVATIONAL
• Study Design: Not specified

Arm && Interventions

Group	Intervention	Description
Secondary fatal drowning	Drowning	These patients are registered in the Danish Register of Causes of Death, with drowning as a contributory cause of death or drowning not registered in the death certificate.
Primary fatal drowning	Drowning	These patients are registered in the Danish Register of Causes of Death, with drowning as an underlying cause of death in the death certificate.

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Autopsy rate	Data is extracted on patients registered in the Danish Prehospital Drowning Data from 2016-2023.	Calculated as the number of autopsy reports divided by the number of fatal drowning incidents registered in the Danish Prehospital Drowning Data.
Secondary fatal drowning rate	Data is extracted on patients registered in the Danish Prehospital Drowning Data from 2016-2023.	Calculated as the number of autopsy reports stating drowning as the contributory cause of death OR not stating drowning as a contributory cause of death divided by the number of fatal drowning incidents registered in the Danish Prehospital Drowning Data.
Primary fatal drowning rate	Data is extracted on patients registered in the Danish Prehospital Drowning Data from 2016-2023.	Calculated as the number of autopsy reports stating drowning as the underlying cause of death divided by the number of fatal drowning incidents registered in the Danish Prehospital Drowning Data.

Trial Locations

Locations (1)

Prehospital Center; 🇩🇰 Næstved, Region Zealand, Denmark