Background: Limited improvement in current SUID rates requires further identification of its characteristics, including age-specific risk patterns.
Objective: Compare SUID risk factors in the first week versus the remainder in the first month of life.
Design/methods: We compared maternal and infant data from New Jersey databases for SUID from 2000 to 2015 in infants ≥ 34 weeks GA in the two groups.
Results: In the period studied, 123 died in the first 27 days, 24 before seven. Deaths in the first week had a higher percentage of mothers with post-High School education (OR 3.50, CI: 1.38-8.87) and a primary Cesarean section delivery (OR 4.0, CI: 1.39-11.49), and a smaller percentage with inadequate prenatal care (OR 0.36, CI: 0.14, 0.94). A smaller percentage of first-week deaths had mothers who smoked during pregnancy or identified as Black, non-Hispanic, but these findings did not reach significance (p < .08 and p < .09, respectively).
Conclusions: SUID in the first week and the first month of life is rare. However, despite a limited sample size, data suggest that even within the first month of life, there are differences in risk patterns for SUID based on age at death. Age-specific profiles may lead to new hypotheses regarding causality and more refined risk-reduction guidelines and warrant further study.
Keywords: Gestational age (GA); sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS); sudden unexpected infant death (SUID); sudden unexpected postnatal collapse (SUPC).