Weather and the risk of sudden infant death syndrome: the effect of wind

Study objective-To examine and identify relations between sudden infant dea th syndrome (SIDS) and wind, particularly the fohn wind, in Christchurch, N ew Zealand. Design-A retrospective epidemiological study combining details of regional hourly meteorological variables and reported SIDS cases. Setting-Christchurch, New Zealand, between 1968 and 1997 inclusively. Parti cipants-All 646 infants reported as dying from SIDS within the greater Chri stchurch region. Main results-Analysis of 1968-1989 data revealed nine wind variables signif icantly related to SIDS. When compared with corresponding variables calcula ted over the 1990-1997 period, only the northerly wind on the day of death and the southerly wind three days before a SIDS death had estimated associa tions with similar effect size and sign. However, both these variables had confidence intervals that included unity. Conclusions -No evidence was found to suspect that fohn winds influenced SI DS occurrence. The relations identified between SIDS incidence and wind, af ter controlling for the effects of temperature and trend, were tenuous and relatively small. More data are necessary to substantiate whether northerly winds on the day of death or southerly winds occurring three days before a death are truly associated with SIDS. It seems that wind has little, if an y effect on SIDS incidence in Christchurch.