Put the life jacket on before boating
Put the jacket on before you need it. Child supervision is a separate precaution, not what the boating study tested.
Wear a life jacket while boating and keep children near water in sight.
Life-jacket use was associated with a drowning risk ratio of 0.51 among US recreational boaters.
Why consider it?
The matched observational study used US Coast Guard data to compare recreational boaters. The risk ratio is relative to not wearing a flotation device; it is not an absolute risk or a randomized trial. The evidence grade belongs to the life-jacket finding, not a measured effect of supervising children. Many vessels were excluded because of missing records, so the estimate may be biased.
Read the sources
Source grade A is reproduced from the original work. It does not establish suitability for everyone.
Original item: chapter 1, item 12 ↗Adaptation: Rewritten in English from the locked Chinese original; retained evidence grade and study limits. Effect sizes quoted from the cited source: estimates are kept in their original comparison and population; observational associations are not described as proven personal gains. China-specific statistics, legal rules and procedures omitted. r3 AI review: Added the original authors' missing-record exclusion and potential-bias warning.
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