Oral

Each year in the United States, about 4,000 previously healthy infants die suddenly and unexpectedly, without an immediately obvious cause-of-death prior to investigation. The nine states participating in the SUID Case Registry compile information on unexplained infant deaths from various data sources, providing comprehensive information about the circumstances associated with an infant death, as well as information about case investigation components. SUID Case Registry state grantees monitor risk factors associated with these infant deaths, which allows for development of targeted prevention strategies and systems improvements. State grantees have been working on using the information in their SUID Case Registry to identify opportunities to improve infant death investigations, identify opportunities for sleep-related infant death prevention, and improving systems of care for families. In this session, New Hampshire will describe how participating in the SUID Case Registry provided an opportunity for two state agencies to work together to support more informed decision-making. This new model allows public health to identify and monitor trends and risk factors; and institute data-driven strategies and interventions that may reduce infant deaths. New Mexico will describe how they used their SUID Case Registry data to identify opportunities to improve the quality of infant death investigations, specifically doll reenactments in sleep-related infant death cases. New Jersey will describe a creative prevention strategy using their SUID Case Registry data to identify high-risk populations who might benefit from targeted interventions. Three state agencies sponsored a Safe Sleep art contest in Middle Schools throughout New Jersey. Thirteen winning submissions are used in a Safe Sleep calendar which will be distributed to Federally Qualified Health Care Centers (that offer prenatal care to low income women), as well as other locations, such as WIC and home visiting agencies.

Session Objectives: To describe how CDC’s SUID Case Registry aims to enhance SUID surveillance To identify at least one strategy participants can implement to improve SUID investigations in their state To identify at least one SUID risk reduction strategy participants can implement in their state