No supporting data linking bumper pad use to increase in risk of infant death

Innovative Science Solutions (ISS) announced today that a thorough review of published scientific studies revealed no direct evaluation of a relationship between crib bumper pad use and infant death. The complete manuscript is being submitted for publication in a peer-reviewed medical journal.

"Our research concludes that although anecdotal evidence exists to support a hypothesis linking bumper pad use with infant death, no controlled, scientific studies support such a causal relationship," said Dr. David Schwartz, one of the lead researchers in the ISS study, "Evaluation of Bumper Pad Safety: What Do the Data Show?"

ISS systematically assessed the available information relevant to the risks and hazards related to the use of infant bumper pads, including data from public health databases, spontaneous case series, controlled epidemiological studies, and studies designed to evaluate bumper pad design specifications. There were no controlled epidemiological studies identified across a wide array of publicly available databases, when using "bumper pad" as a search string.

When the search parameters were widened to include epidemiological studies on infant death, suffocation and bedding materials, only one unpublished study was identified that evaluated bumper pads in its analysis. This study failed to find an increased risk of infant death associated with bumper pad use.

"It is possible that additional studies may become available in the future," Schwartz said. "However, at present, the hypothesis that bumper pad use increases the risk of infant death remains untested, and therefore unsupported by the available data."

ISS expects publication of "Evaluation of Bumper Pad Safety: What Do the Data Show?" before the end of this year.