Recent trend of the incidence of sudden infant death syndrome in Japan.
OBJECTIVE
To clarify the trend of the incidence of SIDS in the last 20 years in Japan to provide the basis for health administration training.


METHODS
We have studied the SIDS incidence rate, the infant mortality rate, the neonatal mortality rate and perinatal deaths of the last 20 years in Japan and calculated the rate at which SIDS has contributed to infant mortality.


RESULTS
We found that the 2001 SIDS incidence rate in Japan was 0.24 per 1000 births, which had taken a downturn since its upturn of around 1995. The rate of SIDS incidence as a part of the infant mortality rate in 2001 in Japan was 7.7%, which had taken a downturn since its upturn of around 1997.


CONCLUSIONS
The SIDS incidence rate in Japan in recent years is on the decline.
Sawaguchi
Toshiko
T
Department of Legal Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Tokyo Women's Medical University, 8-1 Kawada-cho, Shinjuku, Tokyo 162-8666, Japan. tsawagu@research.twmu.ac.jp
Namiki
Mizuho
M
D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D007223:Infant; D007226:Infant Mortality / Q000639:trends; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007564:Japan / Q000453:epidemiology; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013398:Sudden Infant Death / Q000453:epidemiology*