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Media report sudden infant deaths far less often than other childhood mortalities
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Although rates of sudden unexpected infant deaths surpass the rate of other causes of childhood mortality in Chicago, these deaths are not reported at all by media outlets in the city, according to research published in the American Journal of Public Health. Researchers suggest that reporting on these deaths could provide parents with the necessary information to prevent them.
“We would guess that the reason that virtually no sudden unexpected infant deaths make the news is because it is not immediately clear why the baby died,” Kyran Quinlan, MD, MPH, associate professor and division director of general pediatrics at Rush University Medical Center, told Infectious Diseases in Children. “More information will come as the death scene investigation, the autopsy and perhaps investigation from the Department of Children and Family Services are completed. When all this information is available, the story is ‘cold,’ and editors are on to something else.”
Quinlan added that this is a problem because the deaths continue to occur and that families of infants at risk of these deaths “never hear about the cases and must think they happen rarely.” He mentioned that in Chicago, one sudden infant death occurs about once every week.
Furthermore, he mentioned that most SUID cases in Chicago occur in unsafe sleep environments. He added that to reduce this risk, babies should sleep on their back in a crib or bassinet. The infant should not sleep in the bed with a parent.
In their study, the researchers compared the frequency with which media outlets reported on SUIDs and mortalities associated with two other major causes of pediatric death: vehicular crashes and fire-related deaths. The researchers collected data on media reports and mortalities occurring between Jan. 1, 2011, and Dec. 31, 2015. All events occurred in the city of Chicago.
During the study period, the researchers identified 71 vehicular crash-related deaths involving individuals aged younger than 21 years, 45 fire-related deaths involving those aged younger than 21 years and 221 SUIDs in children aged younger than 12 months. Non-Hispanic black infants accounted for more than three-fourths of all SUID cases (77%). This rate was nearly 10 times higher than the number of SUIDs experienced by non-Hispanic white infants (8%). The rate of SUIDs among black infants was also higher than the rate observed in Hispanic infants (14%).
Motor vehicle crashes were the most frequently reported causes of child death by media outlets (59.2%), followed by fire-related deaths (37.8%). The researchers wrote that no SUID cases were reported in the city of Chicago “despite the fact that SUIDs are far more common than child deaths attributable to other injury mechanisms.”
Quinlan said that giving advice to parents in a pediatric clinic alone does not appear to effectively promote safe infant sleep.
“Pediatricians can continue to promote safe infant sleep, but we have to find some more innovative approaches than what we have been doing for years,” he said. “Infant sleep behaviors are not improving. There has been a slow decline in the number of infants laying on their back to sleep and a small increase in the number of parents who bring their baby into the adult bed to sleep. Both of these behaviors increase risk of SIDS and suffocation.”– by Katherine Bortz
Disclosures: The authors report no relevant financial disclosures.
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