Population-Based Burden of Sudden Death in the Young in a United States Cohort

Introduction: Prevention of sudden death in the young (SDY) is hindered by lack of population-based data to determine burden. The National Institutes of Health/Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) SDY Case Registry characterizes the burden of SDY in a population-based cohort of United States youth and fosters research on SDY causes. Methods: The SDY Case Registry identifies sudden and unexpected deaths in youth (0-18 years). “Sudden” is death within 24 hours of symptoms and “unexpected” is death of someone in stable health. We exclude homicide, suicide, overdose, terminal illness and obvious injury-related deaths, but we include drownings and deaths of drivers in motor vehicle accidents. Cases undergo multidisciplinary and clinical reviews and are categorized with a standardized algorithm. We described SDY cases from 2015 in 8 states/jurisdictions. The population included 354,661 live births (353,976 infants) and 6,216,521 children. We calculated SDY burden using CDC WONDER population data, an...