Children and young people with a non-Swedish background are a vulnerable group when it comes to drowning.
This is established by the National Board of Forensic Medicine, which in collaboration with the Swedish Lifesaving Society has examined the circumstances surrounding 4,420 unintentional drowning cases between 2002 and 2021.
In the age group 10 to 19 years, the risk of drowning is nearly seven times higher among children and young people with a non-Swedish background than among those with a Swedish background. By Swedish background, we mean born in Sweden with at least one parent who is also Swedish.
It's tragic that it looks like this, but it's important to highlight this target group. We've suspected this for a long time and we've made some interventions to address it, but now we're seeing for the first time that it's actually like this, says Mikael Olausson, Secretary-General of the Swedish Lifesaving Society.
"Enormous responsibility"
According to Olausson, one needs to get closer to the group, for example through information campaigns and training.
Thanks to this result, we can also talk more clearly with the municipalities. The municipalities have an enormous responsibility in this. Now we can say, you need to look at this. How do you work with this target group?
Today, significantly fewer people drown in Sweden compared to 20 years ago.
But around 2012, the decreasing trend leveled out, and since then, the number of unintentional drowning deaths has been roughly the same every year.
It's worrying, because it means we're not getting better. We need to take stronger measures to continue reducing the number of people who die from drowning, says Mikael Olausson.
Men overrepresented
Another large risk group is simply men, who are clearly overrepresented in all age groups, especially those over 50 years old. The greatest relative risk of drowning is among men between 40 and 69 years old who are traveling by boat.
It's also in this group that the most fatalities with alcohol in their bodies have been found. But at the same time, the occurrence of alcohol among drowning victims has decreased significantly throughout the period.
The circumstances vary between different age groups. Among children and young people, drownings in connection with bathing and swimming are most common, except among 0-4 year olds, where it often involves falls from land. Boat accidents are most common among middle-aged people, while drownings in bathtubs are relatively common in the group over 80 years old.
