Researchers have found that living at higher altitudes may have a role in increasing risks for sudden infant death syndrome.
In a study published in the journal Pediatrics, researchers collected information from birth and death certificates for almost 395,000 infants in Colorado between 2007 and 2012, assessing link to altitudes via the residential addresses of their mothers. After controlling factors like maternal age, infant weight and others, and factoring in the effects of the Back to Sleep campaign (an effort to encourage parents to put babies on their backs when sleeping that began in 1994), researchers discovered that babies who lived beyond 8,000 feet had double the SIDS risk than infants who lived at altitudes below 6,000 feet.
However, Dr. David Katz, a cardiologist from the University of Colorado and the lead author for the study, clarified that "despite the doubling of risk, the absolute risk remains very low." This means that while higher altitudes may have a hand in increasing risks, this does not mean that living in or visiting higher places should be completely abandoned or that new or expectant parents should not immediately move their residence to sea level.
Instead, it is a warning, a call for those living in higher altitudes to be more vigilant in looking out for other factors that can boost SIDS risk and lowering these risks as much as possible by avoiding smoking, putting babies on their backs and encouraging breastfeeding. Babies can also suffocate from soft cloths so cribs should not have blankets or bumpers as well.
What does higher altitudes have to do with increasing SIDS risk then?
The researchers suggest it may have to do with the fact that oxygen levels are lower in higher altitudes. Actually, oxygen comprises 21 percent of the air in both higher and lower altitudes. However, air pressure is lower the higher the altitude, resulting in fewer molecules of oxygen in every breath. Earlier research have shown that living in high altitudes causes hypoxia or low levels of oxygen in the blood.
SIDS is defined as an unexplained death in a seemingly healthy infant under a year old, usually during sleep. It is not know what exactly causes SIDS but previous studies suggest that babies who die from SIDS may have been harboring mild abnormalities in their brain stems that prevented them from waking up when oxygen levels in their body dropped.
Amber Khanna, Kirk Bol, Susan Niermeyer, Brian Bandle and Supriya Shore also contributed to the study.
Photo: Andrew Malone | Flickr
