The development of a model for predicting infants at high risk of sudden infant death syndrome in Tasmania.

Abstract

A statutory 'Notification of Birth' form, containing obstetric and perinatal information, has been routinely collected for Tasmanian deliveries since 1974. For the period 1980 to 1984, birth notification data was collected for over 99% of Tasmanian deliveries. This data was examined for the 130 cases of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) that occurred from 1980 to 1984 and for 610 controls. It was then used to construct an at-birth scoring system to predict infants at higher risk of SIDS in the postneonatal period. A predictive model of the relative risk of SIDS was developed by fitting a binomial/logistic generalised linear model to the binary 1980-1984 case control data with birth variabl..