Nearly half of crib deaths tied to sleep position

New York - 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.

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.

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.

The researchers' findings are reported in this week's issue of the medical journal The Lancet.

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.

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.

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. -- Reuters

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