SIDS – Sudden Infant Death Syndrome

USING A FAN DURING SLEEP MAY REDUCE INFANTS’ SIDS RISK, KAISER PERMANENTE STUDY SHOWS

Fan lowers SIDS risk by 72 percent

Infants who slept in a bedroom with a fan ventilating the air had a 72 percent lower risk of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome compared to infants who slept in a bedroom without a fan, according to a study by the Kaiser Permanente Division of Research published in October 2008. The study appears in the October issue of the Archives of Pediatric & Adolescent Medicine.

The finding is consistent with previous research that showed factors influencing a baby’s sleep environment may change SIDS risk. Among those factors are sleeping on the stomach and soft bedding, both of which may limit air ventilation around an infant’s breathing pathway and thus increase the chance of re-breathing exhaled carbon dioxide.  The study found that if an infant was in a high-risk sleep environment using a fan to improve room ventilation was particularly beneficial.

“Though this needs to be studied further before we can make clinical recommendations, this finding is consistent with the other factors that we know impact the SIDS risk by influencing sleeping environment, such as prone sleep position, soft bedding, and use of a pacifier,” said Dr. Fern Hauck of the University of Virginia Health Systems, who is a SIDS researcher and an American Academy of Pediatrics SIDS Task Force member. Hauck was not involved with the Kaiser Permanente study.

Funded by the National Institutes of Health, this study looked at 185 babies who died from SIDS in 10 Northern California counties and Los Angeles County from 1997 to 2000. They were compared to 312 infants of a similar age and from similar socio-economic and ethnic backgrounds in the same counties. Researchers identified SIDS cases through records from the California Department of Health Services and the Los Angeles County coroner’s office and interviewed participating mothers by trained interviewers in English and Spanish with an average of 3.8 months after the baby’s death.

Source: Extract from Kaiser Permanente press release dated 6 October 2008

The Ball Ceiling Fan by Ron Rezek is featured in the above image.