Temporal disparity between reduction of cot death and reduction of prone sleeping prevalence

According to several reports sudden infant death rates have decreased significantly after public campaigns aimed at reducing the incidence of sleeping in a prone position. The Styrian population (1.2 million inhabitants), who have been studied from 1984, also showed a significant drop in the incidence of cot death during 1989 (from 2%o to 1%o). The year before, a campaign for the prevention of cot death had been launched. This included the recommendation to prevent infants from lying in a prone position during sleep. Part of the prevention programme consisted of a detailed questionnaire filled in and returned by the parents. These data, on 29 970 infants from 1989 to 1994, provided information on the frequency of prone sleeping in 37% of our total population and as a consequence on parental response to the campaign. Calculating the data per year led to the surprising result that the reduction by half (from 50% to 25%) in the prevalence of sleeping in a prone position did not occur in 1989, when the drop in the incidence of cot death occurred, but 3 years later, in 1992. The following years saw a further decrease of prone position to 7% but no appreciable change in the incidence of cot death. However, during those 11 years of study about 80% of the victims were consistently found dead lying in a prone position. Our results show a temporal disparity between the reduction of sudden infant death and the decrease of prone sleeping in a population. Although we do not deny sleeping in a prone position as a risk factor for cot death, there cannot be a simple relationship between sleeping habits in the population and incidence of cot death.