The optimal age to start the lessons is childhood, between one and four years of age. Feeling overly tired reduces swimming performance. This exhaustion can be rapidly aggravated by anxious movements motivated by fear during or in anticipation of drowning. An overconfident appraisal of ones own physical capabilities can lead to "swimming out too far" and exhaustion before returning to solid footing. Free access to water can be hazardous, especially to young children. Barriers can prevent young children from gaining access to the water. Ineffective supervision. Drowning can occur anywhere there is water, even in the presence of lifeguards. Risk can vary with location depending on age. Children between one and four more commonly drown in home swimming pools than elsewhere. Drownings in natural water settings increase with age. More than half of drownings occur among those fifteen years and older and occurred in natural water environments. Familial or genetic history of sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) or sudden cardiac death (SCD) can predispose children to drown. Extensive genetic testing and/or consultation with a cardiologist should be done especially when there is a high suspicion of familial history and/or clinical evidence of sudden cardiac arrest or sudden cardiac death. Individuals with undetected primary cardiac arrhythmias, as cold water immersion or aquatic exercise can induce these arrhythmias to occur.Population groups at risk in the US are generally the old and young. Youth: drowning rates are highest for children under five years of age and people fifteen to twenty-four years of age.
Passive drowning: People who suddenly sink or have sunk due to a change in their circumstances. Examples include people who drown in an accident due to sudden loss of consciousness or sudden medical condition. Secondary drowning: Physiological response to foreign matter in the lungs due to drowning causing extrusion of liquid into the lungs (pulmonary edema) which adversely affects breathing. Silent drowning: Drowning without a noticeable external display of distress. Dry drowning
Dry drowning is a term that has never had an accepted medical definition, and that is currently medically discredited. Following the 2002 World Congress on Drowning in Amsterdam, a consensus definition of drowning was established: it is the "process of experiencing respiratory impairment from submersion/immersion in liquid." This definition resulted in only three legitimate drowning subsets: fatal drowning, non-fatal drowning with illness/injury, and non-fatal drowning without illness/injury. In response, major medical consensus organizations have adopted this definition worldwide and have officially discouraged any medical or publication use of the term "dry drowning". Such organizations include the International Liaison Committee on Resuscitation, the Wilderness Medical Society, the American Heart Association, the Utstein Style system, the International Lifesaving Federation, the International Conference on Drowning, Starfish Aquatics Institute, the American Red Cross, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the World Health Organization and the American College of Emergency Physicians.Drowning experts have recognized that the resulting pathophysiology of hypoxemia, acidemia, and eventual death is the same whether water entered the lung or not.