VCU pediatrician finds decrease in Sudden Infant Death Syndrome over past two decades, increase in past few years

RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) -- A Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) pediatrician’s study found a decrease in Sudden Unexpected Infant Deaths (SUID) over the past two decades, but a spike in the past few years.

SUID is a term used to describe the sudden and unexpected death of an infant under one year old. SIDS is when an infant dies suddenly and the cause is still unknown after an investigation.

Dr. Elizabeth Wolf with the Children’s Hospital of Richmond at VCU and other researchers used data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to find SUID decreased by 24.2% from 1999 to 2022. But, they also found an 11.8% spike in SIDS from 2020 to 2022.   

According to Wolf, there are a few things that could be causing the spike in recent years.  

"We do not know for sure why the rate of Sudden Unexpected Infant Death has increased but some possibilities include: COVID-19 or other respiratory viruses, the opioid epidemic and the role of social media in normalizing unsafe sleep practices," Wolf said. "The decline of trust in doctors and public health experts may be playing a role, but we don’t know with certainty if this is a contributing factor."

SUID can be sleep related, so Wolf provided ways to practice safe infant sleeping.   

First, infants should sleep on their backs in their own space with no other people.  

Wolf said the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends a crib, bassinet or portable play yard with a firm, flat mattress and fitted sheet. It also recommended to keep loose blankets, pillows, stuffed toys and other soft items out of the sleep space, and to avoid your infant sleeping on a couch, armchair or in a seating device, like a swing or car safety seat, except while riding in the car. 

Wolf said the team worked on the study for about four months, but researched trends in pediatric mortality for the past two years. 

"We plotted trends over time and did some more sophisticated... analyses to understand if the trends were significant," Wolf said.

The full study has been published on JAMA Pediatrics.

Wolf told 8News that the Center for Disease Control (CDC) recently released 2023 data and SUID rates remained high. She said the delay in when the CDC releases data shows how long it takes them to gather it.