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National Cot Death Prevention Programme (New Zealand)

Also: NZ cot death prevention campaign · Reducing the risk (NZ)

National programme built on the New Zealand Cot Death Study (1987-90), which found four modifiable risks: prone sleeping, maternal smoking, not breastfeeding and bed sharing. It promoted non-prone sleep, smoke-free pregnancy, breastfeeding and not sharing a bed. New Zealand had one of the world's highest cot death rates (about 4 per 1000). Its early success inspired the UK campaign.

Years
1991–now
Country
New Zealand
Topic
Infant sleep
Asks people to
Substitute
Strategy
Simple instruction
Channel
Clinical settingPrint
Audience
Parents
All new parents, with later focus on Māori and Pacific families

Evidence

ObservationalPositive

Prone sleeping fell from 43% to under 5% and SIDS and all postneonatal deaths fell sharply from 1990, mostly among non-Māori infants (Mitchell 1994). In Canterbury, regular prone placement fell from 39.7% (1987-90) to 2.9% (1997). After the campaign, side sleeping still carried excess risk and maternal smoking with bed sharing became the main risk. Māori SUDI remains far higher (1.97 vs 0.17 per 1000 for Europeans in 2022-23).

Sponsor (who paid)

  • New Zealand Department of Health / Ministry of Health Foreign government
  • New Zealand Cot Death Study researchers (University of Auckland and others) Academic

Credits (who made it)

Not recorded yet.

Related campaigns

Sources

  1. Mitchell EA et al. Reduction in mortality from SIDS in New Zealand: 1986-92. Arch Dis Child 1994 evaluation · 1994 · DOI 10.1136/adc.70.4.291 · PMID 8185361
  2. Mitchell EA et al. Risk factors for SIDS following the prevention campaign in New Zealand. Pediatrics 1997 evaluation · 1997 · DOI 10.1542/peds.100.5.835 · PMID 9346984
  3. Ford RP et al. Changes to infant sleep practices in Canterbury. N Z Med J 2000 evaluation · 2000 · PMID 10738493
  4. Hutchison BL et al. Infant care practices related to SUDI: a 2013 survey. N Z Med J 2015 evaluation · 2015 · PMID 25662375
  5. Mitchell EA et al. Maternal smoking, vaping and infant sleep practices in SUDI: NZ case series. J Paediatr Child Health 2026 evaluation · 2026 · DOI 10.1111/jpc.70352 · PMID 41834025
  6. New Zealand: Campaign falters over bed sharing news · 1995 · DOI 10.1136/bmj.310.6971.8b
  7. The continuing decline in SIDS mortality evaluation · 2007 · DOI 10.1136/adc.2007.116194 · PMID 17405855

Research notes

Created 2026-10-23 from the sleep campaign literature search (PubMed and web search; OpenAlex was unreachable), see docs/sleep-campaigns-literature.md. Findings are paraphrased from abstracts, not full texts; official URLs come from search results and were not opened. Exact programme launch date and sponsoring agency wording not verified from a primary page; Mitchell 1994 shows the fall from 1990, before the formal 1991 programme, after earlier publicity. The current Te Whatu Ora National SUDI Prevention Programme (target 0.1 per 1000 by 2025) is a successor; page https://tewhatuora.govt.nz/... seen in search only. Merged 2026-10-23: a duplicate record (new-zealand-cot-death-prevention) written in parallel by the OpenAlex sleep search (PR #38) was folded in; 2 sources added from it. Its summary read: "National New Zealand campaign from 1991 against prone sleeping, smoking and bed sharing, following the New Zealand Cot Death Study. Back sleeping rose from 24% of infants in 1992 to 72% in 2005, but the bed-sharing message met resistance."

Record cases/nz-cot-death-prevention-programme.json, updated 2026-10-23· Link to this campaign