Maternal Age, the Disparity across Regions and Their Correlation to Sudden Infant Death Syndrome in Taiwan: A Nationwide Cohort Study.

Lin-Yi Huang,Chien-Yi Wu,San-Nan Yang,Wan-Ju Chen,Shu-Leei Tey,Hsien-Kuan Liu,Yung-Ning Yang,Pei-Ling Wu

doi:10.3390/children8090771

Lin-Yi Huang, Chien-Yi Wu + Show 6 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/children8090771

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Journal: Children	Publication Date: Sep 1, 2021
Citations: 4	License type: CC BY 4.0

Affiliation: E-Da Hospital, I-Shou University

Abstract

Sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) has always been a regrettable issue for families. After sleeping in the supine position was proposed, the incidence of SIDS declined dramatically worldwide. However, SIDS still accounts for the top 10 causes of infant deaths in Taiwan. Recognizing the risk factors and attempting to minimize these cases are imperative. We obtained information on cases with SIDS from the National Health Insurance Research Database in Taiwan and interconnected it with the Taiwan Maternal and Child Health Database to acquire infant–maternal basal characteristics between 2004 and 2017. The SIDS subjects were matched 1:10 considering gestational age to normal infants. After case selection, a total of 953 SIDS cases were included. Compared with healthy infants, SIDS infants had younger parents, lower birth weight, and lower Apgar scores. After adjusting for potential confounders, infants with mothers aged <20 years had 2.81 times higher risk of SIDS. Moreover, infants in the non-eastern region had a significantly lower risk of SIDS than those in the eastern region. We concluded that infants of young mothers (especially maternal age <20 years) and infants in the eastern region of Taiwan had a higher risk of SIDS than their counterparts.

Highlights

Published: 1 September 2021Sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) is defined as the unexpected death of babies younger than 12 months of age without any adequate cause of death even after a thorough examination and clinical history review [1,2,3]
Between 2004 and 2017, a total of 1915 infants diagnosed with SIDS were identified from the death registration database of the National Health Insurance Research Database (NHIRD)
Since prematurity is a significant factor that correlates with SIDS [30], we designed a model with the same gestational age to eliminate the effect of SIDS

Summary

Introduction

Published: 1 September 2021Sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) is defined as the unexpected death of babies younger than 12 months of age without any adequate cause of death even after a thorough examination and clinical history review [1,2,3]. Intrinsic factors (i.e., genetics, smoke exposure, prematurity, restricted intrauterine growth), extrinsic factors (i.e., prone or side sleeping position, bed-sharing), ambient heat, and air pollution were all proposed to be relevant risks factors for SIDS [1,4,5,6,7,8]. Among these factors, sleeping in the prone or side-lying position is the most recognized factor that leads to SIDS [1,9]. Among the public health issues, pregnancy at an early age and regional inequality of development and medical resources are essential factors that need to be investigated in Taiwan

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