The Alliance for Safe Children and partners in Indonesian Ministry of Health have completed research on a large cohort of survivors of the 2004 Asian Tsunami Disaster in a bid to discover whether anything could be done to reduce the human toll in similar circumstances or in other large scale water and flooding disasters in the future.

In partnership with the National Institute for Health Research Development, TASC is analyzing survival data from within Aceh province in the districts of Banda Aceh and Aceh Besar, which were some of the worst affected areas. 

The research looks at 3,750 households, at varying distances from the coast and is designed to offer insights into what factors allowed survival, and which factors predisposed to death. 

The Principal Investigators, Dr Michael Linnan of TASC and Dr Soewarta Kosen of the Ministry of Health note there are clear lessons in the data already apparent for preparation for future disasters.  One of these is the protective effect of swimming ability in older children, young and middle aged adults.

Final results from the analysis will be available later in the year.