Sudden infant death syndrome and epidemiology of sudden and unexpected infant deaths in Colombia 2005 and 2010

Abstract

DOI: 10.1016/j.rcpe.2015.07.002

Objectives

This study presents the epidemiology of sudden infant death syndrome and sudden and unexpected infants deaths in Bogotá, Colombia. It shows the similarities and differences with the cases of the United States of America, in order to make the health authorities aware of these.

Methods

A review was conducted on the death certificates of 2,368 possible cases of sudden infant death syndrome (ICD10: R95) / sudden and unexpected infants deaths (ICD10: R96, R98, R99, W75, W76, W77, W83 and W84) that occurred in Colombia in the period between 2005 and 2010. These cases, by ages, were adjusted to log normal distribution of four parameters and the proportion of males and seasonality were also considered and compared with the same USA variables.

Results

The proportion of cases by sex in sudden infant death syndrome and other sudden and unexpected infant deaths in Bogotá (n=682) were 0.572 and 0.584 (398 male, 284 female), respectively, similar to the US. The distribution of ages in months (m) of occurrence of death in the two groups in Bogotá (n=632) was fitted to the equation y = Log [(m + 0.31) / (41.2 - m)] = sz + m, where m=-0982, s=0.357 and z is a normal standard deviation, similar to other data sets. Cases of sudden infant death syndrome in Bogotá were not associated with climate and seasonality, but have a peak incidence in the rainy season, indicating a possible relationship with acute respiratory infection.

Discussion

Sudden infant death syndrome cases in Bogotá, Colombia have the same epidemiological characteristics as developed countries with respect to age and gender. Sudden infant death syndrome/sudden and unexpected infant deaths rates were higher in the rainy season between April and June.