Abandoning prone sleeping: Effect on the risk of sudden infant death syndrome☆,☆☆,★,★★
Section snippets
Methods
This population-based case reference study was carried out in the county of Hordaland, Norway (population, 416,000; 10% of the population of Norway) during the 3-year period 1993 to 1995. The demographic characteristics are similar to the rest of Norway, and the yearly migration rate is only 1.6%.7 The annual number of live births varied between 6229 and 6390, and 80% of infants were born at one major maternity hospital. The study was approved by the Regional Committee on Medical Research
RESULTS
During the study period, six sudden unexpected deaths were identified, which is a rate of 0.3 per 1000 live births (95% confidence interval, 0.05 to 0.54). All had autopsies performed. The usual sleeping position and position placed to sleep for the last time were unknown for one infant. One of five SIDS victims usually slept prone, but another two were placed prone for their last sleep (Table). These three infants had infant colic, and the prone position was chosen to reduce fussiness.
Two of
DISCUSSION
In the county of study, the incidence of SIDS dropped from 3.5 per 1000 live births (95% CI, 2.64 to 4.36) in a 3-year period before a campaign to avoid prone sleeping in January 1990 to 1.5 per 1000 (95% CI, 0.95 to 2.05) in the 3-year period after the campaign. Simultaneously, the rate of prone as the preferred sleeping position dropped from 64% to 8%, and the relative risk of prone sleeping increased from 2.0 to 12.6.1 In the subsequent 3-year period addressed in this study, the prone
Acknowledgements
We thank Professor Lorenz M. Irgens, of The Norwegian Birth Registry, for providing information on infants' deaths.
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Cited by (0)
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From the Departments of Pediatrics and Forensic Medicine, University Hospital of Bergen, Norway.
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Supported by the Norwegian Research Council for Science and the Humanities, the Norwegian SIDS Society, and the local SIDS Society.
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Reprint requests: Britt T. Skadberg, Department of Pediatrics, University Hospital of Bergen, N-5021 Bergen, Norway.
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0022-3476/98/$5.00 + 0 9/22/84642