'Sudden Infant Death Syndrome' rate in the US reduced; sleeping environment 1 of the factors for improvement

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Since the 1990s, rates of infants who die from Sudden Infant Death Syndrome have plummeted. Studies indicate that better sleeping environments are only one of the factors.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says each year, approximately 3,500 babies die from Sudden Unexpected Infant Death or SUID in the United States.

Although researchers are still unable to fully comprehend what causes Sudden Infant Death Syndrome or Sudden Unexpected Infant Death, researchers have made a list of likely culprits. Some of these factors include accidental suffocation due to soft beddings, strangulation and rolling over or beside the infant among others.

According to the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development or the NICHD, parents and guardians can take precautions to reduce the chances of SIDS or SUID. Initially labeled as the Back-to-Sleep program in 1994, the NICHD suggests placing babies on their backs when sleeping, using a firm surface and removing any soft objects from the infant's sleeping area.

A group of researchers from the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Boston Children's Hospital believe that the Back-to-Sleep program is only one of several factors which caused the rate of SIDS cases to go down. In a report by EurekAlert, the researchers concluded that an improvement in prenatal and neonatal care, discouraging expectant mothers to smoke and providing a more secure sleeping environment area all contribute to a reduction in SIDS fatalities.

The results of their study were published in the journal Pediatrics.

Researchers analyzed data taken from the National Center for Health Statistics between 1983 and 2012. According to the Medscape report, the range includes the launch of the Back-to-Sleep program.

Based on the data, the researchers found that from 1992 to 1996 SIDS fatalities dropped by 38 percent after the Back-to-Sleep program was implemented. However, deaths due to SIDS continued to occur, which led researchers to hypothesize that there may be other reasons behind the condition.

Hannah Kinney and J. J. Filiano presented the Triple Risk Model which proposes that a combination of intrinsic and external factors affects infants during this vital stage of development.

Doctors Rachel Moon and Fern Hauck were not involved in the study but wrote a commentary accompanying the Pediatrics study. In the note they said, "If we are to further impact infant mortality rates and eliminate SIDS, focus on the sleep environment will continue to be important, but will likely be insufficient."

"Public health efforts will need to also focus on decreasing intrinsic risk through the promotion of smoking cessation, elimination of in utero drug and alcohol exposure, and increasing rates of breastfeeding and access to high-quality prenatal care," Moon and Hauck added in the editorial.