risk of repeat SIDS

Last reviewed 01/2018

Recurrence of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) is rare but may give rise to confusion and controversy because of the differential diagnoses of familial disease or covert homicide

  • a review examined eight studies of recurrent SIDS published in English since 1970
    • reported relative risks of recurrence, as compared with the population or with controls, ranging from 1.7 to 10.1
    • analyisis that flaws in the studies led to an overestimation of recurrence risk.
    • authors concluded that, although an increase in risk is probable on theoretical grounds, this risk cannot be quantified from the available evidence

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