Application of Big Data Analytic Techniques to Identify New Risk Factors for Sudden Unexplained Death in Infancy

Timeframe

2017–2018

Funding

Faculty Research Development Fund

COMPASS staff

Barry Milne
Chris Liu
Doney Zhang

Collaborators

University of Auckland
Ed Mitchell
John Thompson

Description

The aim of this study was to examine the association between Sudden Unexplained Death in Infancy (SUDI) and service contacts recorded in StatsNZ’s Integrated Data Infrastructure (IDI), adjusting for ethnicity and other sociodemographic factors.

We tested the two hypotheses:

  1. That service contacts are risk factors for SUDI, where service contacts include maternal mental health services, Child Youth & Family Services, and Department of Corrections;
  2. That higher rates of SUDI and service contact in Māori are attenuated when sociodemographic and environmental risk factors are taken into account.