SUDI Nationwide Study - About the Project

Sudden Unexpected Death in Infancy and the SUDI Liaison.

Key Points about the Project include:

• Sudden Unexpected Death of an Infant (SUDI) is any infant death that is unexpected and initially unexplained, and the cause of death is determined after a thorough investigation and autopsy by a medical examiner and coroner
• Each year in New Zealand about 70 babies die from SUDI and about half of these are Māori
• Whānau can never be prepared for what happens as a result of losing a baby
• The Department of Paediatrics, University of Auckland is conducting a three year study on the impact of sleep practices and socioeconomic factors on SUDI on behalf of the Ministry of Health
• The study involves the national roll-out of SUDI Liaison role, covering all SUDI cases occurring over a 36-month period from 1^st March 2012 – 28^th February 2015

• Communio’s role is to manage implementation of data collection for the study to ensure accurate, comprehensive and timely data collection and that whānau have information about coronial processes. 

Information and Project updates:

• Information about SUDI
• Newsletter April 2013
• Newsletter December 2012

The next project update is due in August 2013.