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Beliefs and practices to prevent drowning among Vietnamese-American adolescents and parents

¹ Department of Pediatrics, University of Washington School of Medicine, Children’s Hospital and Regional Medical Center, Seattle, Washington, USA
² Children’s Hospital and Regional Medical Center, Seattle, Washington, USA
³ Public Health–Seattle and King County, Seattle, Washington, USA

Correspondence to:
Dr L Quan
Emergency Services B5502, Children’s Hospital and Regional Medical Center, 4800 Sand Point Way NE, Seattle, WA 98105, USA; linda.quan{at}seattlechildrens.org

Objective: To determine the beliefs, attitudes and practices regarding water safety among Vietnamese-Americans through focus group interviews.

Participants: 15 teenagers (aged 15–19 years) and 20 parents participated, and reported similar attitudes, beliefs and practices regarding water activities. Participants identified a lack of familiarity with water activities and few swimming skills, noting that these activities are not perceived as recreational sports among the Vietnamese. They reported recreating at open water sites because they are free and available, and attributed drowning to fate. Vietnamese youth swim unsupervised, responding to peer pressure despite lack of skills. Participants had negative attitudes toward life jackets using, swimming pools and lessons, because of the costs, but would attend lessons in Vietnamese. They identified schools and Vietnamese media as means of delivering injury-prevention messages.

Conclusions: Decreasing drowning among Vietnamese-Americans requires changing the knowledge, attitudes and safety practices with programs and messages in Vietnamese, as well as targeting the dominant culture.