Disadvantage behind Qld’s 
high sudden infant death rate

Queensland’s first large-scale study of all sudden infant deaths to date has identified key factors contributing to the state’s persistently high annual death rate of babies.

PhD student Rebecca Shipstone conducted an extensive investigation into Queensland’s annual rate of Sudden and Unexpected Deaths in Infants (SUDI), which has not reduced since 2002 and remains higher than most other Australian states and territories.

Her recently completed doctorate was supervised by USC Professor Jeanine Young AM and Associate Professor John Thompson of the University of Auckland, both renowned SUDI researchers. Associate Professor Lauren Kearney, a USC maternal and child health researcher, was part of the investigating…