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Pacifier use and sudden infant death syndrome: results from the CESDI/SUDI case control study. CESDI SUDI Research
P J Fleming1, P S Blair, K Pollard
1FSID Unit, Department of Child Health, Developmental Physiology, Royal Hospital for Children, St Michael's Hill, Bristol BS2 8BJ, UK. peter.fleming@bris.ac.uk
Objectives:
To investigate the relation between pacifier use and sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS).
Design:
Three year population based, case control study with parental interviews for each death and four age matched controls.
Setting:
Five regions in England (population > 17 million).
Subjects:
325 infants who had died from SIDS and 1300 control infants.
Results:
Significantly fewer SIDS infants (40%) than controls (51%) used a pacifier for the last/reference sleep (univariate odds ratio (OR), 0.62; 95% confidence interval (CI), 0.46 to 0.83) and the difference increased when controlled for other factors (multivariate OR, 0.41; 95% CI, 0. 22 to 0.77). However, the proportion of infants who had ever used a pacifier for day (66% SIDS v 66% controls) or night sleeps (61% SIDS v 61% controls) was identical. The association of a risk for SIDS infants who routinely used a pacifier but did not do so for the last sleep became non-significant when controlled for socioeconomic status (bivariate OR, 1.39 (0.93 to 2.07)).
Conclusions:
Further epidemiological evidence and physiological studies are needed before pacifier use can be recommended as a measure to reduce the risk of SIDS.