Position ventrale de sommeil et autres facteurs de risque du syndrome de mort subite du nourrisson: Une étude de prévalence à Genève

A survey by telephone interviews has been carried out in 1993 in the canton of Geneva, in order to measure the prevalence of 3 risk factors for the sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) and to evaluate the potential for SIDS prevention based on these factors prone sleeping position, tobacco smoking by the parents during pregnancy, and no complete breast-feeding at 8 days of age. 278 families participated to the study, of 320 families who could be contacted by telephone in Geneva, from a random sample of 550 families having had a child in Geneva in the preceding 12 months. 40% of the infants had been put to bed in the prone position on the preceding evening. 18% of the mothers had smoked during pregnancy. Prevalence of low birth weight was 4.9% for 0 to 4 cigarettes per day during pregnancy, 17,2% for 5 cigarettes and more At one week, 16.5% of children were not exclusively breast-fed. On the basis of these results, it can be estimated that an effective prevention programme, centred of prone sleeping position could decrease the incidence of SIDS by 50% or more. An even greater fraction of cases, up to 80%, could be avoided by the prevention of the 3 studied factors. These estimates show the need to develop a mother and child health programme in Switzerland. Copyright Birkhäuser Verlag 1997