Parents’ knowledge of sudden infant death syndrome among newborns born in Lithuania in 2020

Abstract

Background and aim To inform parents about the prevention of SIDS and to assess the knowledge of parents of newborns born in Lithuania in 2020 about SIDS. METHODS Online questionnaire including parents of babies aged 0-12 months. The total number of respondents was 2794, after excluding incomplete responses 2371 were analyzed. RESULTS The average age of the babies of the parents who completed the question naire was 6.7 (±3.4) months. 87.1% of parents said that they knew what SIDS was, 12.4% had heard of it but didn’t know exactly, 0.4% didn’t know what SIDS was at all. 81.7% of respondents searched for information on SIDS,18.3% haven’t. 40.1% of respondents answered correctly that infants are most likely to develop SIDS between 2-4 months of age, while 48% of parents thought it was most likely to happen <2 months of age. 55.6% answered correctly that breastfeeding and regular visits to health professionals reduce the risk of SIDS. 67.7% said they lacked knowledge about SIDS. 92.5% of parents said that their GP or paediatrician hadn’t talked to them about SIDS. People with a university degree more often said they know what SIDS is (p< 0.001). Parents’ knowledge is independent of the hospital where their child was born (p< 0.5), but it was related to parental age: older parents were more likely to say they knew what SIDS is (p=0.026), also parents of older infants knew better what SIDS is (p=0.014). Conclusions Parents report not receiving enought information about SID in the hospital and from GPs after delivery. Parents want to know more about SIDS, it is important to improve access to information.