Determining the prevalence of sudden and unexplained death in childhood (SUDC): a national Australian perspective
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ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Determining the prevalence of sudden and unexplained death in childhood (SUDC): a national Australian perspective Jhodie R. Duncan 1,2,3
&
Roger W. Byard 1,2
Received: 14 July 2020 / Accepted: 14 October 2020 # Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract Sudden unexplained death in childhood (SUDC) is defined as the unexplained death of a child over the age of 12 months. The National Coronial Information System (NCIS) Australia was used to access data for deaths of children aged 1 to 4 years over the period 2010 to 2014. Cases were classified as those in which the cause of death was determined and those in which the child died suddenly and unexpectedly, and the cause of death remained undetermined. Categorical information was extracted for each case to determine risk factors associated with the cause of death. The overall rate of death in Australian children aged 1 to 4 years and for whom coronial data was available from 2010 to 2014 was 9.69/100,000 children. A cause of death was determined in 87% of cases with the average rate of death in this group being 8.49/100,000. Death remained undetermined in 13% of cases. The study determined that the SUDC rate in Australian children aged 1 to 4 years was 0.02/100,000. However, this rate may be as high as 0.40/100,000 children should further investigation be undertaken. These children tended to be 18–20 months of age and male, with death occurring primarily while prone during a sleep period in cooler months, thus having similar characteristics to sudden infant death syndrome. Keywords Sudden unexplained death in childhood . Sudden infant death syndrome . Undetermined . Risk factor . Death
Introduction Sudden and unexplained death in childhood (SUDC) is the sudden and unexpected death of a child older than 1 year of age which remains unexplained after a thorough investigation, including review of the clinical history and circumstances of death, and performance of an autopsy examination with appropriate ancillary testing [1]. However, sudden and unexplained death itself is not a cause of death and is a term applied when all known causes of death have been excluded. Thus, as Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s00414-020-02445-3) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. * Jhodie R. Duncan [email protected] 1
Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Vic, Australia
2
Adelaide Medical School, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, Australia
3
Research Unit, Latrobe Regional Hospital, Traralgon, Vic, Australia
it is a definition of exclusion, SUDC is extremely hard to study. Review of the literature from the United States (US) and Ireland reports a prevalence of SUDC of 1.5–1.8 deaths per 100,000 children [1, 2]. Cases of SUDC are predominantly 1 to 4 years of age, male, born at term, singletons, with 25% of cases having a personal or family history of seizures associated with a fever [1, 2].
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