title: Temporal disparity between reduction of cot death and reduction of prone sleeping prevalence.
abstract: According to several reports sudden infant death rates have decreased significantly after public campaigns aimed at reducing the incidence of sleeping in a prone position. The Styrian population (1.2 million inhabitants), who have been studied from 1984, also showed a significant drop in the incidence of cot death during 1989 (from 2/1000 to 1/1000%). The year before, a campaign for the prevention of cot death had been launched. This included the recommendation to prevent infants from lying in a prone position during sleep. Part of the prevention programme consisted of a detailed questionnaire filled in and returned by the parents. These data, on 29970 infants from 1989 to 1994, provided information on the frequency of prone sleeping in 37% of our total population and as a consequence on parental response to the campaign. Calculating the data per year led to the surprising result that the reduction by half (from 50% to 25%) in the prevalence of sleeping in a prone position did not occur in 1989, when the drop in the incidence of cot death occurred, but 3 years later, in 1992. The following years saw a further decrease of prone position to 7% but no appreciable change in the incidence of cot death. However, during those 11 years of study about 80% of the victims were consistently found dead lying in a prone position. Our results show a temporal disparity between the reduction of sudden infant death and the decrease of prone sleeping in a population. Although we do not deny sleeping in a prone position as a risk factor for cot death, there cannot be a simple relationship between sleeping habits in the population and incidence of cot death.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physiology, Karl-Franzens-University, Graz, Austria.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Einspieler
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Kerbl
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kenner
mesh_terms: D001317:Austria; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D015995:Prevalence; D016684:Prone Position; D013398:Sudden Infant Death / Q000453:epidemiology*