UNEXPECTED INFANT DEATH AND ADVERSE SOCIAL STATUS
Families [in which unexpected infant death occurred during a minor illness] showed the most striking rise [in Sheffield] between 1980 and 1987 [and] had twice as many adverse social factors as controls. When we reviewed [these] deaths we found that many of the families in this group seemed to belong to a small subculture within which morbidity, poverty, excess smoking and alcohol consumption, and a fatalistic outlook predominate....
Many unexpected deaths in infants are multifactorial in origin; possibilities for prevention have social, political, and educational as well as medical implications.




