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eLetters to:

REVIEW ARTICLES:
E.A. Mitchell, P.S. Blair, and M.P. L’Hoir
Should Pacifiers Be Recommended to Prevent Sudden Infant Death Syndrome?
Pediatrics 2006; 117: 1755-1758 [Abstract] [Full text] [PDF]
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eLetters published:

[Read eLetters] Consistent effects of pacifier use to prevent SIDS?
Peter S. Millard, MD, PhD   (11 May 2006)

Consistent effects of pacifier use to prevent SIDS? 11 May 2006
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Peter S. Millard, MD, PhD,
Physician
Family Medicine Residency Program

Send letter to journal:
Re: Consistent effects of pacifier use to prevent SIDS?

pmillard{at}emh.org Peter S. Millard, MD, PhD

Mitchell, Blair and L'Hoir present a systematic review of 8 epidemiologic studies concerning pacifier use and SIDS. However, the methods of their systematic review do not adhere to the standards recommended by the Cochrane Collaboration (1). In particular, they do not demonstrate that they conducted a comprehensive search for all studies on pacifier use and SIDS, nor do they report on their inclusion/exclusion criteria or tell us which studies they excluded. They do not report on the validity of included studies, and their only statement on heterogeneity is that "The results are remarkably consistent." In fact, the results do not appear to me to be consistent, with adjusted odd ratios ranging from 0.24 to 1.47. Did the authors use a fixed or random effects model? Did they conduct a statistical test of heterogeneity before concluding that the results were consistent between studies?

1. Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions. http://www.cochrane.org/resources/handbook/

Conflict of Interest:

None declared