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• This study examined policy and legislative-based approaches to drowning prevention in Türkiye. • Regulations exist for mandatory safety inspections, life-saving equipment, and emergency plans for passenger water transport vessels. • Life jackets must be kept on board vessels but lifejacket wear is not mandated. • There are no swimming pool fencing requirements; other safety measures (i.e., depth restrictions and certified lifeguards) are regulated. • We found significant regulatory gaps in disaster risk management and for alcohol consumption around water. Introduction : Drowning is a leading cause of preventable morbidity and mortality worldwide, accounting for 15,000 deaths across Europe in 2021. Effective policies and legislation are essential to reduce drowning risk, including in Türkiye where 750 people drown annually. However, the extent to which Türkiye has implemented such approaches to prevent drowning remains unclear. This study aimed to determine the presence and strength of selected national policies or legislation that improve safety around water. Method: Environmental scan methodology identified national policy and legislation for five World Health Organization-identified priority areas: disaster risk management; legislation for safety of water-transport for vessels; mandating lifejacket wear; swimming pool legislation (including fencing and other safety measures); and alcohol regulations. Keyword searches identified relevant documents that were thematically analyzed and evaluated. Results: From 568 documents identified, 14 unique documents were included in the study (disaster risk management n = 1, passenger water-transport vessel safety n = 8, lifejacket legislation n = 5, and swimming pool safety n = 2). No relevant alcohol regulations were found. Strong legislation exists around passenger water-transport vessel safety including mandated safety inspections, lifesaving equipment and emergency plans. Although lifejackets carriage is mandatory, lifejacket wear is not mandated. There is no requirement for fencing around swimming pools however, some pool safety measures are robust (i.e., depth restrictions, certified lifeguards). Significant gaps remain regarding disaster risk management and alcohol regulations. Conclusion: Considering Türkiye’s drowning burden, strengthening policies and legislation to support drowning prevention, underpinned by an expanded evidence base, is an urgent priority. Practical Applications: This research makes evidence-based recommendations for improving policy and legislative-based approaches to preventing drowning in Türkiye including the development of a national drowning registry, mandating lifejacket wear (as opposed to carriage) and national registration of swimming pools (both public and private) to support enforcement of recommended improvements to legislation around swimming pool fencing.
Işın et al. (Thu,) studied this question.