Dallas team releases latest stats on infant sleep-related deaths

The Dallas County Child Death Review Team released the latest statistics from the years 2012-2016 on infant sleep-related deaths this month. The numbers revealed an unsafe sleep environment was the leading cause of death among children in Dallas County under the age of one and 78 percent of the deaths were among children who were not sleeping within their crib.

The Dallas County Child Death Review Team (CDRT) operates as informational teachers to publicize the causes and circumstances of death among children. The team is a multi-agency group that reviews the deaths of children and adolescents 0 – 17 years of age in the county.

The DFW Hospital Council Foundation provides support to the CDRT report through its data warehouse and the work of Dr. Sushma Sharma, the Foundation’s director of public and populations health research, who is a member of the team. The group works out of Parkland Health & Hospital System’s Injury Prevention Center of Greater Dallas.

A unique feature of Dallas County CDRT is the capacity to analyze the data and research trends. In 2008, the CDRT noticed a pattern of child deaths related to bed sharing. Bed sharing in conjunction with infants sleeping on their stomachs or sleeping outside of a crib has been shown to have an association with unexplained infant deaths.

You can view the statistics here.