[Drowning risk factors into cistern for children 1 to 4 years old].

OBJECTIVE Analyze risk factors for drowning deaths in tanks, from home, for children between one and four years, residents of the metropolitan area of Guadalajara and the neighboring municipalities in the period 2009-2011. MATERIAL AND METHODS Case-control study, 28 children (cases) between one and four years old, whose cause of death was drowning in the well of your home, from 2009-2011, in the metropolitan zone of Guadalajara and the neighboring municipalities, and 113 children (controls) of the same age, if neighbors whose homes had cistern. Deaths were classified with W73 and W74 codes from International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (ICD 10th). A questionnaire for variables: age and sex of child; age, marital status, occupation and education of the household head and mother; housing conditions; and location, type and segurity cistern lid, and forms the removal of water therefrom. RESULTS The rate of drowning deaths, age-specific, was 2.7 deaths per 100,000 children between one and four years of age during the study period. The ages of two and three years had the greatest risk of drowning. Sex had a predominance of children, two girls one over. The heads of families and mothers of cases were younger (< 29 years), with maximum secondary schooling. Most of the houses had not finished complete. The characteristics of de well, as metal lid,foil or plastic, the lack of assurance of the tank and the location of the cover, crossing sites, showed association with death by drowning. The absence of a pump to draw water in cases the proved statistically more significant with p = 0.002. CONCLUSION The results of our study show the presence of drowning deaths in children between one and four years associated with the type of cistern cover, the locking mechanism, a way of extracting the water and the location of the well, and thus the need to implement preventive measures in education and engineering, to reduce or avoid the risk of death by suffocation in the study group.