As overall infant mortality has dropped to a record low, the rate of sudden and unexpected infant deaths, or SUIDs, has remained stubbornly high in 2020, according to a study published March 13 in "Pediatrics."
Classified as including sudden infant death syndrome, accidental suffocation, bed strangulation, and other unknown causes, in 2020, the SUID rate for white babies dropped to the lowest level since 2017, but among black babies the highest since then.
Black babies already faced SUID rates that were twice as high as their white counterparts in 2017. However, by 2020, the disparity has increased to three times, according to the study.
The findings were particularly alarming, as SUID rates have remained consistent within each racial and ethnic group for decades.
In 2020, black babies surpassed Native Americans as the racial and ethnic group with the highest rates of SUID.
Sharyn Parks Brown, co-author of the study, said the researchers reanalyzed the data several times after finding the spike among black babies. “Normally, we would look at five years of data to see any kind of trend.
So these are very preliminary findings," Parks Brown told CNN. "But that's something we'll have to keep monitoring." In response to the survey, doctors said the high rates of SUID's "reflect societal failures."
Socio-economic disparities "not only result in limited access to health care and education, but also in many families not having a stable and safe place for their babies to sleep," according to the doctors.
