High Risk Groups for Sudden Infant Death Syndrome in Israel

Abstract □ 37

Background: Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) is one of the main causes of death among healthy infants, and an unexpected and unexplained event. In order to prevent SIDS it is important to identify high risk groups in which SIDS cases are more frequent.

Methods: The data are extracted from matched infant death and live births files, based on the formal death notifications and live birth notifications. The underlying cause of death was coded according to the International Classification of Diseases, 9^th Revision, Clinical Modification (ICD-9-CM). For this study, all infant deaths with the underlying cause "sudden death" (798) were included. Due to small numbers of cases the years were grouped.

Results: 246 SIDS cases occurred in 1990-1993 birth cohort. They represented 6.4% of infant deaths; the rate was 0.6 per 1,000 live births. SIDS rate increased three-fold between 1977-1980 and 1990-1993, partially due to improvement in reporting. The high risk groups, based on 1990-1993 data were babies born under 2.0 kg, born to young mothers, to mothers with lower education and to multipare mothers. The rate among non-jews was higher then the rate among Jews. Most cases occurred during winter (December-March) and at age 2-4 months. (Table)

Table 1