Open AccessDiphtheria-tetanus-pertussis immunization and sudden infant death syndrome.
Author(s) -
Walker Am,
Hershel Jick,
Davidr . Perera,
Robert S. Thompson,
Thomasa . Knauss
Publication year - 1987
Publication title -
american journal of public health
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.284
H-Index - 264
eISSN - 1541-0048
pISSN - 0090-0036
DOI - 10.2105/ajph.77.8.945
Subject(s) - sudden infant death syndrome , medicine , tetanus , immunization , diphtheria , pediatrics , infant mortality , confidence interval , mortality rate , vaccination , immunology , population , antibody , environmental health
We compared the recency of diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis (DTP) immunization in healthy children with birthweights greater than 2500 gms who died of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) to that of age-matched reference children, using a modified case-control analysis. Focusing on very narrow time intervals following immunization, we found the SIDS mortality rate in the period zero to three days following DTP to be 7.3 times that in the period beginning 30 days after immunization (95 per cent confidence interval, 1.7 to 31). The mortality rate of non-immunized infants was 6.5 times that of immunized infants of the same age (95 per cent CI, 2.2 to 19). The latter result and to some extent the former appear to be ascribable to known risk factors for SIDS. Although the mortality ratios for SIDS following DTP, as estimated from this study, are high the period of apparently elevated risk was very short, so that only a small proportion of SIDS cases in infants with birthweights greater than 2500 gms could be associated with DTP.