This report presents provisional statistics on sudden infant deaths in England and Wales which occurred in 1999. It also compares the number of sudden infant deaths by sex, age at death and month of occurrence with data from 1995 to 1998.
There were 279 sudden infant deaths which occurred in England and Wales in 1999, compared with 286 in 1998, a decrease of two per cent. The sudden infant death rate remained the same as in 1998, at 0.45 per 1,000 live births.
Key findings for the period 1995-99:
Sudden infant deaths are more common amongst boys than girls. In the period 1995-99, 60 per cent of all sudden infant deaths occurred amongst boys, whilst boys comprised 51 per cent of all live births.
In the period 1995-99, 88 per cent of sudden infant deaths occurred in the postneonatal period (ie deaths at ages 28 days and over).
In the period 1995-99 there were 31 per cent more sudden infant deaths in the three month period January to March compared with the three month period July to September.
Key findings for 1999:
The sudden infant death rate was highest for babies weighing 1,500-1,999 grams and then it decreased with increasing birthweight. The rate for babies weighing 1,500-1,999 grams was seven times higher than that for babies weighing 3,500 grams and over.
The sudden infant death rate was highest for children of mothers aged under 20 compared to all other age groups at the time of the child's birth.
There were only 21 infant deaths (eight per cent) whose mothers were born outside the United Kingdom compared to 89,014 (14 per cent) of live births.
The sudden infant death rate was lowest for babies born inside marriage. The sudden infant death rate for babies born outside marriage where only the mother registered the birth was over five times higher compared to babies born inside marriage.
The rate for babies born inside marriage to mothers who had no previous births was 64 per cent lower than the overall sudden infant death rate.
For births inside marriage, the babies of fathers in social class V had the highest sudden infant death rate compared to babies of fathers in the other social classes. In all social classes babies born outside marriage had higher sudden infant death rates than babies born inside marriage.
EXPLANATORY NOTES:
Definition
The statistics given in this report are based on any mention of 'sudden infant death', 'cot death', 'SIDS', 'crib death', or some similar term mentioned anywhere on the death certificate.
Future changes to the data
The 1999 statistics given in this report relate to our database as at 10 June 2000. Therefore these figures may differ slightly from those published elsewhere.
The 1998 figures have been revised and are based on our database as at 28 October 1999.
This dataset presents statistics on sudden infant deaths which occurred in 1999 and which have been linked to their corresponding birth records. Information about parents which was collected at birth registration can then be used to enable analysis of the data according to certain risk factors. The risk factor presented here is father's social class based on his occupation.
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