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Male excess in SIDS is not caused by more males sleeping prone than females
- David Mage (4 December 2000)
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David Mage, Environmental Scientist Temple University, Philadelphia, PA, USA
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davidm{at}temss2.isr.temple.edu David Mage
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Dear Editor,
l'Hoir et al suggest that the male excess in SIDS is created by more infant males sleeping or turning prone than females. This does not appear to be the case because the male fraction in SIDS remained constant after the campaign to reduce prone sleeping in the USA. Using US SIDS data obtained at the CDC WONDER web site, wonder.cdc.gov, I tested the male SIDS rates for all races in the age group 28 to 364 days as neonatal infants cannot turn themselves. In the period 1979-91 before the back-to-sleep campaign there were 39,252 male SIDS and 25,430 female SIDS cases, for a male fraction of 0.605. In the period 1992-98 when the back-to-sleep campaign caused an average SIDS rate decline by 35%,the male SIDS were 14,705 and the female SIDS were 9,543 for a male fraction 0.606. Therefore, the excess male fraction in SIDS appears to be constant, independent of the change in fractions of prone sleep of the male and female infants, so the mechanism for creating the constant male excess in infant mortality must be found elsewhere. |
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