Multistage scoring system for identifying infants at risk of unexpected death.

Obstetric and perinatal records have been assembled on 250 infant deaths and an equal number of live controls including 55 deaths associated with congenital anomalies. The information was used to construct a scoring system to identify high-risk infants at birth. Parents of 115 of the cases and their controls were also interviewed and all hospital, general practitioner, and health service records abstracted. Cases and controls were compared item by item in respect of all information available up to the age of one month and a scoring system constructed for use at one month. The 'at birth' and combined scoring systems are presented. The chance of death by age attained is presented for various risk groups. In a small prospective test, the multistage scoring system was nearly 50% more effective than the birth score alone.