William D. Ramos, Indiana University Bloomington – Impending Impact of COVID-19 on Drowning Rates

As temperatures rise, water safety continues to be an important topic during COVID-19.

William D. Ramos, associate professor in the department of health & wellness design at Indiana University Bloomington, explains why.

William D. Ramos is an associate professor in the Department of Health & Wellness Design, as well as the director of the Aquatics Institute at IU Bloomington. He is also a member of the American Red Cross Scientific Advisory Council. His research agenda focuses on how the aquatic environment adds to the picture of public health and ultimately quality of life through examining factors including physical activity, drowning prevention, water safety, recreational water illnesses and affordance/access issues to help develop a holistic view.

Impending Impact of COVID-19 on Drowning Rates

The World Health Organization recently proclaimed drowning to be a “global burden and the third leading cause of unintentional death on the planet.” Drowning is also a significant public health concern in the United States. After birth defects, drowning is the main cause of unintentional deaths for children ages one to four. If we expand the age range to ages one to 14, drowning still remains the second leading cause of unintentional death behind motor vehicle crashes.

Researchers in the water safety sector are watching to see if the Coronavirus pandemic makes those statistics bleaker as Americans coped with the need to social distance last summer. We’ve already seen some evidence of a drowning spike: Last summer, both Florida and Lake Michigan shorelines experienced an increase in drowning rate, with the latter marking a grim 10-year high.

This summer looks to be more promising in that more Americans are vaccinated and therefore more public swimming pools and beaches will be open. But the exponential growth in home pool sales has attracted the attention of water safety experts.

This is a major concern because we know that 70 percent of drownings in the U.S. occur in home pools due to a variety of factors including lack of supervision and ineffective barriers to prevent unauthorized access.

In an effort to dampen any spike in drowning rates, aquatic safety experts will be working with nonprofit and government partners to ramp up existing water safety education programs – whether it be creating legislation around rules for owning and operating a home pool or more effectively engaging with social media to reach audiences that might typically be addressed in person  and we will be studying how the associated behaviors leading up to drownings during the pandemic have changed and then calibrate prevention efforts as appropriate.