Sociodemographic and meteorological correlates of sudden infant death in Taiwan

BACKGROUND: This study was designed, using three national datasets including the Taiwan Death Registry, Taiwan Birth Registry, and National Meteorological Dataset, to examine the socio-demographic, geographic and meteorological correlates of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). METHODS: One thousand six hundred seventy-one cases of SIDS occurring between 1994 and 2003 and 8,355 matched controls were included in this nested case-control study. RESULTS: Over the study period, the annual rate of SIDS declined only slightly, with an averaged annual rate of 57.9/10(5) . Male infants [AOR, 1.19; 95% CI-1.06, 1.33], preterm births [AOR, 1.69; 95% CI-1.33, 2.13], low birth weight [AOR, 2.87; 95% CI- 2.30, 3.59], and birth order > =3 [AOR, 1.62; 95% CI-1.37, 1.92] were the demographic risk factors for SIDS. Additionally, parental age with Language: en