ORIGINAL ARTICLE

SIDS risk factors and factors associated with prone sleeping in Sweden

B Alm¹, P Möllborg², L Erdes³, R Pettersson⁴, N Åberg¹, G Norvenius¹, G Wennergren¹

¹ Department of Paediatrics, Göteborg University, Sweden
² Central Infant Welfare Bureau, Uddevalla Hospital, Sweden
³ Paediatric Outpatient Clinic, Skene, Sweden
⁴ Department of Paediatrics, Skaraborg Hospital, Skövde, Sweden

Correspondence to:
Dr Bernt Alm
Department of Paediatrics, Göteborg University, The Queen Silvia Children’s Hospital, SE-416 85 Göteborg, Sweden; bernt.alm{at}medfak.gu.se

Objective: To compare the current prevalence of risk factors for sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) in Sweden with a decade earlier, and assess factors associated with prone sleeping.

Methods: The results of a cohort study (Infants of Western Sweden) and a population based case-control study (Nordic Epidemiological SIDS Study) were examined. Subjects were 5600 healthy 6 month old infants born in 2003 in the Western Sweden region and 430 healthy Swedish infants born between 1991 and 1995.

Results: Prone sleeping decreased from 31.8% to 5.6% and supine sleeping increased from 35.3% to 47.3%. Side or side/supine sleeping increased from 25.2% to 43.8%. Maternal smoking during pregnancy decreased from 23.5% to 9.5%. The risk for prone sleeping increased if the mother was unemployed (OR 2.4, 95% CI 1.5 to 4.0), if she was a heavy smoker in the third trimester (OR 44.1, 95% CI 1.6 to 1199.6), and if the child was irritable (OR 2.5, 95% CI 1.3 to 5.1), shared a bedroom with siblings (OR 2.6, 95% CI 1.0 to 6.6), or never used a dummy (OR 3.2, 95% CI 1.9 to 5.4).

Conclusions: Parents have complied with advice to prevent SIDS given at infant welfare centres for the last 10 years. A change in the preferred sleeping position from side variants to exclusively supine, and reducing the number of pregnant women smoking may be beneficial. Use of a prone sleeping position was associated with maternal employment status, maternal smoking, temperament of the child, dummy use, and sharing a bedroom with siblings.

Keywords: epidemiologic factors; maternal smoking; prone position; SIDS incidence; sudden infant death syndrome

CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    What's this?

Relevant Article

A brief digest of the November issue
Arch. Dis. Child. 2006 91: e7. [Extract] [Full Text] [PDF]

This article has been cited by other articles:

• Alm, B, Aberg, N, Erdes, L, Mollborg, P, Pettersson, R, Norvenius, S G, Goksor, E, Wennergren, G (2009). Early introduction of fish decreases the risk of eczema in infants. Arch. Dis. Child. 94: 11-15 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Hauck, F. R., Tanabe, K. O. (2008). International Trends in Sudden Infant Death Syndrome: Stabilization of Rates Requires Further Action. Pediatrics 122: 660-666 [Full Text]  
• Alm, B., Erdes, L., Mollborg, P., Pettersson, R., Norvenius, S. G., Aberg, N., Wennergren, G. (2008). Neonatal Antibiotic Treatment Is a Risk Factor for Early Wheezing. Pediatrics 121: 697-702 [Abstract] [Full Text]