Wilderness Medical Society Clinical Practice Guidelines for the Treatment and Prevention of Drowning: 2024 Update.

The Wilderness Medical Society convened a panel to review available evidence supporting practices for acute management of drowning in out-of-hospital and emergency care settings. Literature about definitions and terminology, epidemiology, rescue, resuscitation, acute clinical management, disposition, and drowning prevention was reviewed. The panel graded available evidence supporting practices according to the American College of Chest Physicians criteria and then made recommendations based on that evidence. Recommendations were based on the panel's collective clinical experience and judgment when published evidence was lacking. This is the second update to the original practice guidelines published in 2016 and updated in 2019.

Wilderness Medical Society Clinical Practice Guidelines for the Treatment and Prevention of Drowning: 2019 Update.

The Wilderness Medical Society convened a panel to review available evidence supporting practices for acute management and treatment of drowning in out-of-hospital and emergency medical care settings. Literature about definitions and terminology, epidemiology, rescue, resuscitation, acute clinical management, disposition, and drowning prevention was reviewed. The panel graded available evidence supporting practices according to the American College of Chest Physicians criteria and then made recommendations based on that evidence. Recommendations were based on the panel's collective clinical experience and judgment when published evidence was lacking. This is the first update to the original practice guidelines published in 2016.

Impact of comorbid mental health needs on racial/ethnic disparities in general medical care utilization among older adults.

OBJECTIVE: The objective is to apply the Institute of Medicine definition of healthcare disparities in order to compare (1) racial/ethnic disparities in general medical care use among older adults with and without comorbid mental health need and (2) racial/ethnic disparities in general medical care use within the group with comorbid mental health need. METHODS: Data were obtained from the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (years 2004-2012). The sample included 21,263 participants aged 65+ years (14,973 non-Latino Caucasians, 3530 African-Americans, and 2760 Latinos). Physical illness was determined by having one of the 11 priority chronic health illnesses. Comorbid mental health need was defined as having one of the chronic illnesses plus a Kessler-6 Scale >12, or two-item Patient Health Questionnaire >2. General medical care use refers to receipt of non-mental health specialty care. Two-part generalized linear models were used to estimate and compare general medical care use and expenditures among older adults with and without a comorbid mental health need. RESULTS: Racial/ethnic disparities in general medical care expenditures were greater among those with comorbid mental health need compared with those without. Among those with comorbid mental health need, non-Latino Caucasians had significantly greater expenditures on prescription drug use than African-Americans and Latinos. CONCLUSIONS: Expenditure disparities reflect differences in the amount of resources provided to African-Americans and Latinos compared with non-Latino Caucasians. This is not equivalent to disparities in quality of care. Interventions and policies are needed to ensure that racial/ethnic minority older adults receive equitable services that enable them to manage effectively their comorbid mental and physical health needs. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Wilderness Medical Society Practice Guidelines for the Prevention and Treatment of Drowning.

The Wilderness Medical Society convened a panel to review available evidence supporting practices for the prevention and acute management of drowning in out-of-hospital and emergency medical care settings. Literature about definition and terminology, epidemiology, rescue, resuscitation, acute clinical management, disposition, and drowning prevention was reviewed. The panel graded evidence supporting practices according to the American College of Chest Physicians criteria, then made recommendations based on that evidence. Recommendations were based on the panel's collective clinical experience and judgment when published evidence was lacking.

Comment on Cerland, L. et al. Incidence and Consequences of Near-Drowning-Related Pneumonia-A Descriptive Series from Martinique, French West Indies. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2017, 14, 1402.

We read with great interest the recent paper by Cerland et al. on the frequency, nature, and consequences of post-drowning pneumonia[...].

The use of non-uniform drowning terminology: a follow-up study.

BACKGROUND: In 2002, the World Congress on Drowning developed a uniform definition for drowning. The aim of this study is to determine the prevalence of "non-uniform drowning terminology" (NUDT) and "non-uniform drowning definitions" (NUDD) in peer-reviewed scientific literature from 2010 to 2016, and compare these findings with those from our unpublished study performing a similar analysis on literature from 2003 to 2010. METHODS: A systematic review was performed using drowning-specific search terms in Pubmed and Web of Science. Titles and abstracts published between July 2010 and January 2016 were screened for relevance to the study focus. Articles meeting screening criteria were reviewed for exclusion criteria to produce the final group of studies. These articles were reviewed by four reviewers for NUDT and NUDD. The Fisher exact test was used to determine any statistically significant changes. RESULTS: The final group of studies included 167 articles. A total of 53 articles (32%) utilized NUDT, with 100% of these including the term "near drowning". The proportion of articles utilizing NUDT was significantly less than reported by our previous study (p < 0.05). In addition, 32% of the articles included a definition for drowning (uniform or non-uniform), with 15% of these utilizing NUDD. DISCUSSION: Our study reveals a statistically significant improvement over the past thirteen years in the use of uniform drowning terminology in peer-reviewed scientific literature, although year-to-year variability over the current study period does not yield an obvious trend. CONCLUSIONS: Of the articles reviewed during the 2010-2016 study period, 32% included outdated and non-uniform drowning terminology and definitions. While this reveals an absolute decrease of 11% as compared with the previous study period (2003-2010), there is still significant room for improvement.