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Sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) is the leading cause of death among infants between 1 month and 1 year of age in the developed world. In the United States, SIDS accounts for 22% of all postneonatal deaths. 1 Many countries have launched educational campaigns in an effort to prevent SIDS, focusing on the modifiable factors that had been shown previously to be associated with SIDS. 2 Although campaigns vary in the content of their other messages, the leading message of every campaign has been avoidance of the prone position for sleeping infants. Dramatic declines in SIDS have been attributed to these campaigns, which were found to be primarily a result of decreases in prone-sleeping rates. 3–9 Other recommendations, such as those advising mothers not to smoke during pregnancy, were followed less widely. 3, 7 The majority of campaigns were initiated in the late 1980s to early 1990s. In the United States, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommended the nonprone sleeping position for infants in 1992. 10 The national Back to Sleep campaign began 2 years later and emphasized the same recommendation. 11 In 2000, on the basis of new epidemiologic evidence, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommended back sleeping as the preferred position. 7 In the United States, prone-sleeping rates have declined 81%, from 70% in 1992 to 13% in 2005, and supine-sleeping rates have increased from 13% to 72% over that period. 12 The US rate of SIDS has declined 55% (from 1. 20 in 1000 live births in 199213 to 0. 54 in 1000 live births in 2005). 14 Previously, SIDS rates were found to differ by country, as had reductions in rates. 15 The purpose of this report is to compare more-recent international data on SIDS and postneonatal infant mortality rates to examine trends, discuss … Address correspondence to Fern R. Hauck, MD, MS, University of Virginia School of Medicine, Department of Family Medicine, PO Box 800729, Charlottesville, VA 22908-0729. E-mail: frh8eatvirginia. edu
Hauck et al. (Mon,) studied this question.