Sudden Unexpected Death in Infancy: identifying barriers to prevention and coproduction of interventions

Sudden unexpected infant death (SUDI) now clusters in the most vulnerable and lowest income UK families. County Durham (CD) has the 7th highest UK rate of babies born into vulnerable families, for whom traditional SUDI prevention campaigns have been ineffective. Working with Durham County Council's Public Health Team and members of the Durham Infancy and Sleep Centre, this PhD project will use interviews and focus groups to explore the barriers to implementing SUDI prevention guidance (a.k.a. safe sleep advice) among disadvantaged families, and work with parent support groups to co-produce and test tailored interventions (using the behaviour change wheel) to meet their needs and empower families to make safe sleep choices for their infants, and spread effective SUDI prevention strategies to their peers.