Risk factors for sudden infant death syndrome among northern plains Indians.

Context: Sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) is a leading cause of postneonatal mortality among American Indians, a group whose infant death rate is consistently above the US national average.

Objective: To determine prenatal and postnatal risk factors for SIDS among American Indians.

Design, Setting, And Participants: Population-based case-control study of 33 SIDS infants and 66 matched living controls among American Indians in South Dakota, North Dakota, Nebraska, and Iowa enrolled from December 1992 to November 1996 and investigated using standardized parental interview, medical record abstraction, autopsy protocol, and infant death review.