Using a Fan Reduces the Risk of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome Risk

A new study has found that using a ventilation fan while an infant is sleeping in a room with inadequate aeration can decrease the risk of that infant dying of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS).

Researchers at the Kaiser Permanente Division of Research (Oakland, CA, USA) investigated information taken from interviews with mothers of 185 infants who has died of SIDS, and the mothers of 312 randomly selected infants from the same county, with the same maternal race, ethnicity, and age. In the interviews, mothers answered questions about fan use, pacifier use, the status of nearby windows on the night of the infant's last sleep, location of the room, sleep location, number and type of covers, the bedding used, and the and the temperature of the room.

The researchers identified several trends; the most notable being that having a fan operating during sleep was associated with a 72% decrease in SIDS deaths in comparison to sleeping in a room without a fan. This was especially true for the use of fans when the room temperature was higher; when the room was about 21 °C, fan use decreased SIDS deaths by 94%. This was also true for infants who slept on their sides, shared a bed with someone other than their parents, or did not use a pacifier. The study was published in the October 6, 2008, issue of Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine.

"Although improving the methods used to convey the importance of the supine sleep position remains paramount, use of a fan in the room of a sleeping infant may be an easily available means of further reducing SIDS risk that can be readily accepted by care providers from a variety of social and cultural backgrounds,” concluded lead author Kimberly Coleman-Phox, M.P.H., and colleagues.

SIDS is a syndrome marked by the symptoms of sudden and unexplained death of an apparently healthy infant aged one month to one year. In 1992, based upon epidemiological evidence and studies of sleep physiology, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) began advising parents to place their newborn infants to sleep on their backs (the "Back to Sleep” campaign) based on the physiological data which showed that infants who sleep on their back have lower arousal thresholds and less slow-wave sleep (SWS) compared to infants that sleep on their stomachs. As a result, the incidence of SIDS decreased by 56%.

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Kaiser Permanente Division of Research