Vaping and Sudden Unexplained Death in Infancy

An efficiently designed case-control study.

There are about 350 Sudden Unexpected Deaths in Infancy (SUDI) each year in England. Cigarette smoking by mothers before and after the birth increases risk of SUDI. Vaping or e-cigarettes can help people to stop smoking, but many young adults vape having never smoked cigarettes before.

Cigarettes and vapes contain nicotine, in pregnancy this can harm a baby’s brain development and could explain why smoking increases risk of SUDI. This research aims to find out if vaping is a risk for SUDI because at present this is unknown. It is an important issue because increasing numbers of young adults are starting to vape.

When a child dies unexpectedly, there is a full investigation including a post-mortem examination and case review. All the information from these investigations is held at the National Child Mortality Database (NCMD). We will obtain detailed case information for unexpected infant deaths between 2020-2023. We will review cases and divide them into two groups for further study: Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS – unexplained infant deaths) and explained SUDI (deaths where the cause has been identified such as infection).

We expect there will be around 400 SIDS and 400 explained SUDI cases. We will work with mothers to create an online questionnaire about smoking, vaping, cannabis use and other SUDI risk factors. We will invite mothers and carers of infants to complete the questionnaire by text messages sent from Birmingham Community Healthcare.

We need around 400 mothers to complete the questionnaire. We will compare parents smoking and vaping habits between SUDI cases and surviving infants to calculate risks. The study will start in October 2024 and last 24 months. Results will be used to update advice for pregnant mothers on risks from vaping and smoking.

Teddy’s Wish have contributed: £12,494