Patients Treated by the Danish Emergency Medical Services Following Non-drowning Water Rescues From 2016 to 2023 (RESCUE)

August 20, 2025 updated by: Niklas Breindahl, Prehospital Center, Region Zealand

Patients Treated by the Danish Emergency Medical Services Following Non-drowning Water Rescues From 2016 to 2023: A Danish Registry-based Study From 2016 to 2023

Since 2015, all Danish prehospital EMS have used the nationwide Prehospital Electronic Medical Record (PEMR). In 2023, the investigators developed the Danish Drowning Formula (DDF), a text-search algorithm designed to search the unstructured text fields in the electronic medical records with comprehensive search criteria to identify all potential water-related incidents. This protocol describes the first study to analyse the prehospital data from a nationwide Danish cohort of patients treated by the EMS from 2016 to 2023 following non-drowning aquatic rescues.

Study Overview

Status

Recruiting

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

Purpose The purpose of this study is to establish recommendations towards specific educational, preventative, or rescue strategies to reduce the number of aquatic rescues in Denmark (e.g., campaigns targeting high-risk groups, or fencing, allocating rescue equipment, or establishing lifeguard stations in high-risk areas). This may not only enhance prevention of aquatic rescues but also decrease the mortality and the total number of drowning incidents in Denmark.

Objectives The primary objective is to estimate the yearly incidence of patients treated by the Danish EMS following a non-drowning aquatic rescue from 2016 to 2023 and calculate the aquatic rescue to drowning ratio. The secondary objectives are to characterise the rescues (e.g., lay rescuer or professional rescuer, use of equipment) and to report the spatial distribution.

Study design This study is a nationwide registry-based study with data from the Danish nationwide PEMR from 2016 to 2023.

Methods Since 2015, all Danish prehospital EMS have used the nationwide Prehospital Electronic Medical Record (PEMR). In 2023, the investigators developed the Danish Drowning Formula (DDF), a text-search algorithm designed to search the unstructured text fields in the electronic medical records with comprehensive search criteria to identify all potential water-related incidents. This study will be the first to analyse the prehospital data from a nationwide Danish cohort of patients treated by the EMS from 2016 to 2023 following non-drowning aquatic rescues.

Study Type

Observational

Enrollment (Estimated)

3000

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Contact

Study Contact Backup

Study Locations

  • Denmark
    • Region Sjælland
      • Næstved, Region Sjælland, Denmark, 4700
        • Recruiting
        • Prehospital Center
        • Contact:
          • Helle Collatz Christensen, MD, PhD
          • Phone Number: 004521673452
          • Email: Hcli@regsj.dk
        • Contact:

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

  • Child
  • Adult
  • Older Adult

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

N/A

Sampling Method

Non-Probability Sample

Study Population

Patients treated by the Danish EMS following an aquatic rescue are identified from the Danish Prehospital Electronic Medical Record using the Danish Drowning Formula and extensive manual validation.

We used the WHO definition of drowning supported by the "Clarification and Categorisation of Non-fatal Drowning" statement to differentiate between drowning and non-drowning aquatic rescues.

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • All the patients registered in the Danish Prehospital Electronic Medical Record from 2016-2023 will be screened by the Danish Drowning Formula and the medical records containing one or more trigger words will be extracted for manual validation.
  • All records where the patient was immersed or submersed in liquid but did not experience mild, moderate, or severe respiratory impairment following the drowning process will be included.

Exclusion Criteria:

  • All records where the patient was immersed or submersed in liquid and did experience mild, moderate, or severe respiratory impairment following the drowning process).
  • All records where the patient was not immersed or submersed in liquid.

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

Cohorts and Interventions

Group / Cohort
Intervention / Treatment
Aquatic rescue
Patients treated by the Danish EMS following an aquatic rescue performed by lay or professional rescuers are identified from the Danish PEMR using the Danish Drowning Formula (DDF) and extensive manual validation.
Other: Submersion or immersion in liquid
The patient must have been submersed or immersed in liquid.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
The annual incidence.
Time Frame: From 2016 to 2023.
The incidence will be reported as the annual number of cases.
From 2016 to 2023.
The annual incidence rate.
Time Frame: From 2016 to 2023.
The incidence rate will be reported as the annual number of cases per 100,000 person-years.
From 2016 to 2023.

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
The spatial distribution of aquatic rescues on a map of Denmark.
Time Frame: From 2016-2023.
Each incident will be presented with a single entry based on the geographical coordinates of the incident.
From 2016-2023.

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Prehospital Center, Region Zealand

Investigators

  • Study Director: Helle Collatz Christensen, Ass. Prof., Prehospital Center, Region Zealand

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Actual)

January 1, 2016

Primary Completion (Estimated)

December 31, 2025

Study Completion (Estimated)

May 1, 2026

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

March 18, 2024

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

March 18, 2024

First Posted (Actual)

March 25, 2024

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Estimated)

August 27, 2025

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

August 20, 2025

Last Verified

March 1, 2024

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • AQUATIC_RESCUE

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

NO

IPD Plan Description

The datasets used and analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

product manufactured in and exported from the U.S.

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

Clinical Trials on Drowning

Clinical Trials on Submersion or immersion in liquid

Search Similar Trials

Sponsors and Collaborators

Medical Conditions

Drug Interventions

CROs by country

CROs in Philippines

Conditions

Rare Diseases

Drug Interventions

Dietary Supplements

Sponsor/Collaborators

Locations

Subscribe