Infant Sleep Position: Factors Influencing Caregiver’s Choice

These investigators studied the factors that determine caregiver behavior in response to the 1994 “Back to Sleep” campaign to reduce sudden infant death syndrome. Annual telephone surveys were conducted between 1994 and 1998 among a nationally representative sample in the United States. Approximately 1000 interviews per year were conducted with nighttime caregivers of infants born in the prior 7 months. The participating caregivers were asked about the infant’s usual sleep position, where they had received sleep position recommendations, and the reasons for their choices. From 1994 to 1998, prone placement declined from 44% to 17% among white infants and 53% to 32% among black infants. Supine placement increased among …