Primary or Secondary Drowning

NCT06310499 — Active not recruiting, 700 participants, Prehospital Center, Region Zealand

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Primary or Secondary Fatal Drowning? A Registry-based Study Analysing Autopsy Reports From Patients Registered in the Danish Prehospital Drowning Data

RegistryNCT06310499, acronym DROWN_COD
StatusActive not recruiting
Study typeObservational
Enrollment700 (Estimated)
SponsorPrehospital Center, Region Zealand (Other)
ConditionsDrowning, Drowning; Anoxia, Drowning, Near, Drowning in Swimming Pool, Drowning; Asphyxia, Drowning/Diving/SCUBA Accident, Drowning or Immersion of Unknown Intent, Drowning and Submersion, Undetermined Intent, Drowning and Submersion While in Bath-Tub, Drowning and Submersion While in Natural Water, Drowning and Submersion Due to Sailboat Sinking, Drowning and Submersion Due to Fall Off Ship, Drowning and Submersion While in Swimming-Pool
InterventionsDrowning (Other)
Datesstart 2016-01-01, primary completion 2025-12-31 (estimated), completion 2026-12-31 (estimated), first posted 2024-03-15, last updated 2025-08-27
Locations1 site in Denmark

Related Papers Related Patents Related Grants Related Experts
All trials for Drowning All trials for Drowning; Anoxia All trials of Drowning

-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.

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+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.

+Arms and interventions

ArmTypeInterventionsDescription
Primary fatal drowningOther: DrowningThese patients are registered in the Danish Register of Causes of Death, with drowning as an underlying cause of death in the death certificate.
Secondary fatal drowningOther: DrowningThese 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.
  • Drowning (Other): Drowning is defined as the process of experiencing respiratory impairment from submersion or immersion in liquid.

+Outcome measures

Primary outcomes

  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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.

+Eligibility

Sex: All

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

+Locations (1)

FacilityCityCountryStatus
Prehospital CenterNæstved, Region SjællandDenmark

+Publications

  • Breindahl N, Wolthers SA, Jensen TW, Holgersen MG, Blomberg SNF, Steinmetz J, Christensen HC; Danish Cardiac Arrest Group. Danish Drowning Formula for identification of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest from drowning. Am J Emerg Med. 2023 Nov;73:55-62. doi: 10.1016/j.ajem.2023.08.024. Epub 2023 Aug 15. PMID 37619443
  • Helweg-Larsen K. The Danish Register of Causes of Death. Scand J Public Health. 2011 Jul;39(7 Suppl):26-9. doi: 10.1177/1403494811399958. PMID 21775346
  • Results publication: Breindahl N, Bitzer K, Sorensen OB, Wildenschild A, Wolthers SA, Lindskou T, Steinmetz J, Blomberg SNF, Christensen HC; Danish Drowning Validation Group. The Danish Drowning Cohort: Utstein-style data from fatal and non-fatal drowning incidents in Denmark. BMC Med Res Methodol. 2025 Jan 30;25(1):28. doi: 10.1186/s12874-025-02483-8. PMID 39885431

+Investigators