The siblings of infants who have died from sudden unexpected death in infancy (SUDI) have a 10-fold increased risk of dying the same way, indicates a long-term analysis of monitoring data, published online in the Archives of Disease in Childhood.
The observational study used clinical case records from the UK’s Care of Next Infant (CONI) programme for infants registered on CONI between January 2000 and December 2015.
There were 6608 live-born infants registered, with 29 deaths. Twenty-six families had two deaths, and three families had three deaths. The SUDI rate for infants born after one SUDI was 3.93 (95% CI, 2.7-5.8) per 1000 live births, which is more than 10 times the UK rate of unexplained infant deaths of 0.31 per 1000 live births in 2016 and more than nine times higher than the rate of 0.43 per 1000 live births in 2006.
Accidental asphyxia accounted for two first and six CONI deaths. Medical causes accounted for three first and four CONI deaths, and homicide accounted for two first and four CONI deaths. Ten families had child protection concerns.
Many parents continued to smoke and exposed infants to hazardous co-sleeping situations, with these directly leading to or contributing to the death of six siblings. The authors concluded that SUDI parents need support to improve parenting skills and reduce risk to subsequent infants.
It should be noted that although this is the most complete set of data on sibling SUDIs available in the UK, the CONI programme is voluntary, so the figures may have been underestimated. The research was also unable to gather information on potentially influential risk factors for SUDI, such as low birthweight or premature birth.
