Sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) is the sudden and unexplained death of an infant where no cause is found after detailed post mortem.
- 219 unexplained infant deaths occurred in England and Wales in 2016, a rate of 0.31 deaths per 1,000 live births a non-statistically significant increase from 0.28 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2015
- Just over half (51.6%) of all unexplained infant deaths were boys in 2016 (0.32 deaths per thousand live births). However, when compared with 2015, there was a larger increase in the unexplained infant mortality rate among girls as it increased by 63.2%, whilst the rate for boys fell by 11.1%.
- The rate of infant deaths increased by 24% for mothers aged under 20. The number of unexplained infant deaths increased for mothers of all age groups, with the exception of mothers aged 25 to 29 years, which decreased by 7.7% from 2015 and mothers aged 35 to 39 years, which has remained the same
- 240 unexplained infant deaths occurred in the UK in 2016, a rate of 0.31 deaths per 1,000 live births
Credit: Office of National Statistics, National Records of Scotland and Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency 2018
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