(Press-News.org) Parents who share a bed with their breastfed baby could face a fivefold increase in the risk of cot death, even if the parents do not smoke, according to a new study. The research was led by the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and is published in BMJ Open.
Cot death – also known as sudden infant death syndrome (SIDs) – remains a major cause of death among babies under 1 year of age in high income countries. There is already a general consensus that sleeping with a baby increases the risk of cot death if the parents smoke or if the mother has been drinking alcohol or taking drugs. However, there are conflicting opinions as to whether bed sharing in general represents a risk when these factors are not present.
Some countries, including the US and the Netherlands, advise all parents against sharing a bed with their baby for the first 3 months. The UK currently only advises certain groups, including parents who are smokers, not to bed share.
The new study is the largest ever analysis of its kind. Researchers examined the individual records of 1,472 cot death cases and 4,679 control cases across five major studies. They found that the risk of cot death among breastfed babies under 3 months increased with bed sharing, even when the parents did not smoke and the mother had not consumed alcohol or drugs. This fivefold increase was in comparison to room sharing, where a baby slept in a cot in the parents' room.
The researchers estimate that 81% of cot deaths among babies under 3 months with no other risk factors could be prevented if they did not sleep in the same bed as their parents. The study also showed that the risk associated with bed sharing decreases as a baby gets older, and that the peak period for instances of cot death was between 7 and 10 weeks.
Professor Bob Carpenter from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine who was lead author on the study said: "Currently in the UK more than half of cot deaths occur while a baby is sleeping in the same bed as its parents. Although it is clear that smoking and drinking greatly increase the risk of cot death while bed sharing, our study shows that there is in fact an increased risk for all babies under 3 months who bed share, even if their parents do not smoke or drink.
"If parents were made aware of the risks of sleeping with their baby, and room sharing was instead promoted in the same way that the 'Back to Sleep' campaign was promoted 20 years ago to advise parents to place their newborn infants to sleep on their backs, we could achieve a substantial reduction in cot death rates in the UK. Annually there are around 300 cot death cases in babies under a year old in the UK, and this advice could save the lives of up to 40% of those. Health professionals need to make a definite stand against all bed sharing, especially for babies under 3 months."
The authors state that babies can still be brought into the parents' bed for comfort and feeding during the night, but that they should be placed in a cot next to the parents' bed to sleep.
###
For more information or to arrange interviews with Professor Carpenter please contact the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine press office on +44 (0)20 7927 2802 or email press@lshtm.ac.uk
Notes to Editors:
1. R. Carpenter, C. McGarvey, EA. Mitchell et al. Bed sharing when parents do not smoke: is there a risk of SIDS? An individual level analysis of five major case-control studies. BMJ Open. doi:10.1136/bmjopen-2012-002299
2. Original data collection was funded by:
European Concerted Action on SIDS – The European Union and the Foundation for the Study of Infant Deaths;
Irish SIDS study – Irish Department of Health and Children;
New Zealand Cot Death Study – The Health Research Council of New Zealand;
Scottish Cot Death Study – Scottish Cot Death Trust;
German Study on Sudden Infant Death – Federal Ministry of Education and Research.
No additional funding was utilised for combining these datasets, imputing the missing data, analysis, or writing this report.
3. Annual cot death figures for the UK taken from Lullaby Trust report http://www.lullabytrust.org.uk/document.doc?id=97
About the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine
The London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine is a world-leading centre for research and postgraduate education in public and global health, with 3,500 students and more than 1,000 staff working in over 100 countries. The School is one of the highest-rated research institutions in the UK, and was recently cited as one of the world's top universities for collaborative research. The School's mission is to improve health and health equity in the UK and worldwide; working in partnership to achieve excellence in public and global health research, education and translation of knowledge into policy and practice. http://www.lshtm.ac.uk
Bed sharing leads to fivefold increase in risk of cot death for babies whose parents do not smoke
2013-05-21
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
May research highlights from American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene
2013-05-21
New Rapid Diagnostic Test for Worm Infection Provides Substantial Improvement Over Current Standard, According to New African Field Study; Provides Compass to Guide Public Health Efforts to Halt Debilitating Lymphatic Filariasis (Elephantiasis)
Two Studies on Efforts to Eliminate Onchocerciasis (River Blindness) in Africa:
a. In a First for East Africa, Scientists Provide Detailed Evidence that Onchocerciasis (River Blindness) May Be Eliminated After 14 Years of Long-term Mass Drug Treatment
b. Onchocerciasis (River Blindness) Could Make Comeback in Northwestern ...
Bed sharing with parents increases risk of cot death fivefold
2013-05-21
Bed sharing with parents is linked to a fivefold increased risk of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), even when the parents are non-smokers and the mother has not been drinking alcohol and does not use illegal drugs, according to a large analysis published online in BMJ Open.
While the rate of SIDS has fallen sharply following advice to parents to place babies to sleep on their back (supine), SIDS remains the major cause of infant death in the postneonatal period (28 days through to the first birthday) in developed countries.
Some countries, such as the Netherlands ...
The incidence of eating disorders is increasing in the UK
2013-05-21
More people are being diagnosed with eating disorders every year and the most common type is not either of the two most well known—bulimia or anorexia—but eating disorders not otherwise specified (eating disorders that don't quite reach the threshold to be defined as anorexia or bulimia), shows a study published online in BMJ Open.
Few studies have investigated the incidence of eating disorders, so the authors set out to determine the incidence of diagnosed anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa and other non-specified eating disorders in primary care over a 10-year period ...
Mediterranean diet seems to boost ageing brain power
2013-05-21
A Mediterranean diet with added extra virgin olive oil or mixed nuts seems to improve the brain power of older people better than advising them to follow a low-fat diet, indicates research published online in the Journal of Neurology Neurosurgery and Psychiatry.
The authors from the University of Navarra in Spain base their findings on 522 men and women aged between 55 and 80 without cardiovascular disease but at high vascular risk because of underlying disease/conditions.
These included either type 2 diabetes or three of the following: high blood pressure; an unfavourable ...
Protein study suggests drug side effects are inevitable
2013-05-21
A new study of both computer-created and natural proteins suggests that the number of unique pockets – sites where small molecule pharmaceutical compounds can bind to proteins – is surprisingly small, meaning drug side effects may be impossible to avoid. The study also found that the fundamental biochemical processes needed for life could have been enabled by the simple physics of protein folding.
Studying a set of artificial proteins and comparing them to natural proteins, researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have concluded that there may be no more than ...
New test better detects elephantiasis worm infection
2013-05-21
A new diagnostic test for a worm infection that can lead to severe enlargement and deformities of the legs and genitals is far more sensitive than the currently used test, according to results of a field study in Liberia, in West Africa, where the infection is endemic.
The new test found evidence of the infection – lymphatic filariasis – in many more people that the standard test had missed.
The study, the first to independently evaluate the new test, was led by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates ...
Study shows that women who smoke during pregnancy increase the risk of both obesity and gestational diabetes in their daughters
2013-05-21
Women who smoke during pregnancy increase the risk of both obesity and gestational diabetes, in their daughters, concludes research published in Diabetologia, the journal of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes. The study is by Dr Kristina Mattsson, Lund University, Sweden, and colleagues including Dr Matthew Longnecker from the National Institute on Environmental Health Sciences at the U.S.National Institutes of Health, North Carolina, USA.
While the relation of prenatal tobacco exposure to negative outcomes in childhood has been much studied, reports on ...
Parasitic wasps use calcium pump to block fruit fly immunity
2013-05-21
Parasitic wasps switch off the immune systems of fruit flies by draining calcium from the flies' blood cells, a finding that offers new insight into how pathogens break through a host's defenses.
"We believe that we have discovered an important component of cellular immunity, one that parasites have learned to take advantage of," says Emory University biologist Todd Schlenke, whose lab led the research.
The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) published the results, showing how a wasp version of a conserved protein called SERCA, which normally functions ...
AHRQ-funded journal supplement offers lessons on primary care practice transformation
2013-05-21
LEAWOOD, Kan. – Primary care practice transformation on a large scale is the cornerstone of current health care reform efforts aimed at achieving better outcomes, better value and better experience of care. Amid emerging evidence that transformation toward the patient-centered medical home model offers a viable solution in today's health care environment, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality funded 14 studies to learn more about the processes and determinants of successful change from practices that had already demonstrated ...
Molecular trigger for Alzheimer's disease identified
2013-05-21
Researchers have pinpointed a catalytic trigger for the onset of Alzheimer's disease – when the fundamental structure of a protein molecule changes to cause a chain reaction that leads to the death of neurons in the brain.
For the first time, scientists at Cambridge's Department of Chemistry have been able to map in detail the pathway that generates "aberrant" forms of proteins which are at the root of neurodegenerative conditions such as Alzheimer's.
They believe the breakthrough is a vital step closer to increased capabilities for earlier diagnosis of neurological disorders ...