Sudden Infant Death Syndrome: Risk Factors and the Relationship between Them

Infant mortality is often used as a standard measure of a population’s health. Until cause of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome is unknown (SIDS), the best strategy to decrease SIDS, is programming to decrease facing with risk factors. The aim of this study was to find the SIDS risk factors among families during their child care in Iran. The study is the first in Iran to examine the risk In the observational cross-sectional study, 878 mother-infant pairs who visited governmental health clinics were included by convenience sampling. The inclusion criteria was, all mother-infant pairs which infants Most common risk factors of SIDS was determined: co-sleeping (92.03%), bed sharing (49.31%), side lying position (47.49%) and non-exclusive breastfeeding (45.5%). A significant relationship was found between bed-sharing and head covering (p=0.001); bed-sharing and prone position (p=0.001); bed-sharing and breastfeeding (under 4 months) (p=0.001); mother's age and co-sleeping (p=0.038) mother's age and prone position (p=0.001). SIDS risk factors were common during child care. Hygienic teams and nurses have a key role in SIDS prevention through enhancing level of parental awareness by education to family about risk factors and its prevention is necessary. Further studies to identify risk factors and incidence of SIDS in different regions country are recommended.