The Public Health Approach
The public health approach provides a systematic, evidence-based framework for improving recreational boating safety and preventing injuries and fatalities. Rather than relying on any single solution, it uses data, research and evaluation to understand boating safety problems, identify the factors that contribute to them, and determine which prevention strategies are most effective.
As illustrated above, the approach follows four key steps: define the problem; identify risk and protective factors; develop and test prevention strategies; and ensure widespread adoption of effective approaches. This process helps boating safety professionals move from identifying a problem to understanding why it occurs, determining what works to prevent it, and putting successful strategies into broader practice.
For state recreational boating safety programs, the public health approach complements traditional boating safety efforts by bringing together data and surveillance, education, enforcement, policy, partnerships, environmental and systems-level strategies, and evaluation. Looking at boating safety through this broader lens can help agencies identify where and why injuries occur, target interventions to specific risks and populations, measure whether those interventions are working, and expand approaches that demonstrate results.
NASBLA supports state boating safety agencies in applying public health and injury prevention principles to recreational boating safety. The resources on this page are designed to help boating safety professionals strengthen their understanding of the public health approach and incorporate evidence-based prevention strategies into their programs and initiatives.