Identification of cases of sudden infant death syndrome from death certificates

SUMMARY A method is proposed for identification of cases of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) from information available on death certificates. Deaths at ages between 7 days and 2 years, referred to a coroner, having certain specified causes of death codes, identified 160 of 169 cases of SIDS confirmed as such by a pathologist. The sensitivity of the method was 94%, and the specificity was 97%. The application of Beckwith's definition ' of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS): "The sudden death of any infant or young child which is unexpected by history and in whom a thorough necropsy examination fails to demonstrate an adequate cause of death " is a process of elimination rather than the identification of positive criteria. In a population where a single pathologist is responsible for all necropsy examinations, the classification will be relatively consistent, especially as this conclusion i