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The following is a summary of “Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic Interventions on Sudden Unexpected Death in Infancy Incidence in France,” published in the October 2024 issue of Pediatrics by Scherdel et al.
Sudden unexpected death in infancy (SUDI) remains a significant concern in pediatric health, prompting investigations into its incidence amid public health interventions and non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs).
Researchers conducted a prospective study evaluating the impact of NPIs on the incidence of SUDI.
They performed an interrupted time-series analysis using seasonally adjusted Poisson regression models from the French national prospective and multicenter SUDI registry (January 2016 through December 2021) to analyze SUDI cases under 1 year of age (n=998).
The results showed 998 SUDI cases, 750 were recorded during the pre-pandemic period (January 2016 through March 2020) and 248 during the non-pharmaceutical intervention period (April 2020 through December 2021), with a significant decrease in monthly SUDI incidence from the pre-pandemic to non-pharmaceutical intervention periods (adjusted incidence rate ratio 0.83 [95% CI 0.72-0.96]). The incidence of SUDI cases with viral or bacterial identification decreased significantly, while no significant difference was found for SUDI cases without viral or bacterial identification.
They concluded that NPIs were associated with a notable reduction in SUDI cases with viral or bacterial identification, warranting further investigation into the pathophysiologic role of pathogens in SUDI.