Cause of sudden unexpected infant deaths shifts in the U.S.

(HealthDay)—From 1999 to 2015 there was a small reduction in the rate of sudden unexpected infant death (SUID), according to a study published online Feb. 12 in Pediatrics.

Alexa B. Erck Lambert, M.P.H., from the DB Consulting Group Inc. in Silver Spring, Md., and colleagues used data from U.S. mortality files to examine national and state-specific SUID rates (deaths per 100,000 live births) for 1990 to 2015. Infants with an underlying cause of death, sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), unknown cause, or accidental suffocation and strangulation (ASSB) were included as SUID.

The researchers found that from 1990 to 2015 there was a decrease in SUID rates from 154.6 to 92.4 per 100,000 live births, with a 44.6 percent decrease from 1990 to 1998 and a 7 percent decrease from 1999 to 2015. From 1999 to 2015 there was a 35.8 percent decrease in SIDS rates, a 183.8 percent increase in ASSB rates, and no significant change in the rates of unknown cause. Among states, there was considerable variation in SUID trends from 41.5 to 184.3 in 2000 to 2002, and from 33.2 to 202.2 in 2013 to 2015.

"Reductions in SUID rates since 1999 have been minimal, and wide variations in state-specific rates remain," the authors write. "States with significant declines in SUID rates might have SUID risk-reduction programs that could serve as models for other states."