International Child Care Practices Study: infant sleep position and parental smoking

The International Child Care Practices Study (ICCPS) collected descriptive data from 21 centres in 17 countries. In this report, data are presented on the key sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) risk factors of infant sleep p osition and parental smoking. Methods: Using a standardised protocol, paren ts of infants were surveyed at birth by interview and at 3 months of age ma inly by postal questionnaire. Data entry and descriptive analysis were unde rtaken with Epi Info. Centres were grouped according to geographic location . Also indicated was the level of SIDS awareness in the community, i.e. whe ther any campaigns or messages to "reduce the risks of SIDS" were available at the time of the survey. Results: Birth interview data were available fo r 5488 individual families, and 4656 (85%) returned questionnaires at 3 mon ths. Overall, 52.5% (95% CI, 43.5-61.3) of infants were placed in the supin e or back sleep position, 37.8% (95% CI, 30.6-45.7) in the side position an d 13% (95% CI, 9.3-17.9) in the prone or front position. The prevalence of supine sleeping ranged from 14% (Santiago, Chile) to 89% (Tokyo/Yokohama, J apan). The prevalence of reported smoking was between 0% and 34% for mother s and 10% and 64% for fathers. In samples from Western countries, there was a trend for rates of maternal smoking to be similar to paternal smoking, w hereas in other samples, low rates of maternal smoking contrasted with high rates of paternal smoking. Conclusions: These data highlight considerable variations and interesting patterns in the prevalence of these two importan t SIDS risk factors in these diverse samples. Impressive differences in rat es of smoking within and between these communities may reflect different st ages of the inevitable progression of the smoking epidemic, but may also pr ovide some encouragement that reduction in smoking rates, in both mothers a nd fathers, is possible. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.