- NEW YORK (Reuters Health)
- Findings from a European study suggest that about 48 percent of crib
deaths are attributable to the baby sleeping on its front or side. Sleeping
in a room other than the parent's room was linked to 36 percent of cases,
and 16 percent were linked to bed sharing.
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- Sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), also called crib
death or cot death, is the leading cause of death in babies less than a
year old. Most SIDS deaths occur when babies are between two and four months
of age, and more often in boys.
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- To better understand the risk factors for SIDS, Dr. R.
G. Carpenter, from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine,
and colleagues conducted studies in 20 regions in Europe. Data from 745
SIDS cases and 2411 living babies were included in the analysis.
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- The researchers' findings are reported in this week's
issue of the medical journal The Lancet.
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- Consistent with previous reports, sleeping in the prone
position or turning from the side to the prone position were major risk
factors for SIDS. Compared with infants who slept in other positions, those
that slept prone or turned from the side to the prone position were 13-
and 45-times more likely, respectively, to experience SIDS.
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- Unless the mother smoked, bedsharing had little effect
on the risk of SIDS and the association was only apparent during the first
8 weeks of life. In contrast, if the mother smoked, bedsharing raised the
risk of SIDS by 13-fold during the first weeks of life.
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- Maternal alcohol use was identified as a significant
SIDS risk factor, but only when the infant shared the bed all night, the
researchers report.
-
- "Avoidable risk factors such as those associated
with inappropriate infants' sleeping position, type of bedding used, and
sleeping arrangements strongly suggest a basis for further substantial
reductions in SIDS incidence rates," the investigators conclude.
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- SOURCE: The Lancet, January 16, 2004.
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