What is the effectiveness of a water safety training programme “(Swim for Safety)” in improving knowledge, attitudes and skills on survival swimming and water safety among undergraduates in a selected public university in Sri Lanka?

Study Setting: University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka

Sampling method: Simple random sampling will be used without any stratification, assuming that all first-year undergraduates have the same level of water safety knowledge, attitudes and survival swimming skills. Participants will be randomized to either the intervention or control group using a computer-based random number generator based on the alphabetically ordered name list obtained from the university.

Population: Both intervention and control group will be selected from same batch of the University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka. All male and female students of all the faculties will be eligible for both groups. The risk of possible contamination will be avoided by instructing the participants not to share the information they learnt during the training and assessment with other students who do not participate and thoroughly explaining the effects of contamination on the study and possible disadvantages

Intervention: the formal training programme on drowning prevention and water safety, “Swim for Safety programme for university students” will be delivered to the participants in the intervention group as a group intervention, with 26 participants per group. The training programme consists of 12 lessons to improve basic water safety knowledge, attitudes and skills. The training will be delivered at the swimming pool. The training will be delivered as one and half hour duration lessons, two days per week, over six weeks duration. A maximum of two groups will be trained per day and the maximum time duration to complete the training of all participants will be six months. The language medium for the training will be Sinhala.

The SfS training team will consist of a head coach, an assistant coach, six lifesavers and four assessors (data collectors). They will be selected from the group of individuals who have undertaken the formal “SfS” training with Sri Lanka Life Saving and Life Saving Victoria Australia.

Control: the control group will receive a lecture, a brochure and weekly mobile phone message on survival swimming and water safety facts for six weeks. The educational programme for the control group will be titled “Stop Drowning" and include the following elements: a. What is drowning b. Current situation of drowning c. Common causes for drowning d. How to recognized a drowning victim e. Methods of drowning prevention

All male and female first-year undergraduates in the University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka who consent to participate in the training programme.

1. Participants who have any previous formal swimming, lifesaving and cardiopulmonary resuscitation training.

2. Participants who suffer from seizure disorders and other brain-related disorders which may increase drowning risk drowning.

3. Participants with physical impairments that may affect their ability to undertake the survival swimming tests will be excluded to avoid the risk of accidental drowning. The health status of the students will be confirmed by physical assessment and thorough history assessment by the medical officer at the university health center, after thoroughly explaining the associated risks.

4. Participants who cannot communicate [understand, read and write] in the Sinhala language, as the survival swimming and water safety training team and data collectors in Sri Lanka are only trained in the Sinhala language. Due to time and resource restrictions, translation of the programme and data collection tools to other languages [mainly Tamil] and training coaches, assessors and lifesavers who speak those languages are not feasible for this study. Majority of the population speaks in Sinhala language.