Study: Kids' drowning deaths on decline

More than 1,000 children die of drowning in the United States each year and another 5,000 are injured, but such casualties have declined dramatically since the early 1990s, a new study shows.

The annual number of children who died of drowning after being admitted to a hospital declined 42 percent between 1993 and 2008. Total trips to the hospital after drowning-related incidents declined by 51 percent among children during that time, researchers found.

"There have been efforts at education from a variety of groups," said study author Stephen Bowman, an assistant professor at the Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. "One would think that those messages are getting across."

Drowning injuries are the second leading cause of accidental trauma in children in the United States. Only car accidents injure more children, Bowman said. Nonfatal-drowning often results in brain damage and long-term disability, according to the study.-- HealthDay