Sudden infant death syndrome: knowledge of its risk factors among Italian healthcare professionals

This paper focuses on healthcare professionals’ knowledge about risk and protective factors of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.We adapted a Rasch model to obtain an index of unpreparedness which we then analysed with a random logistic regression model.Healthcare professionals from different regions present significant differences in their knowledge. All healthcare professionals, especially physicians, show a sig-nificantly lower knowledge than paediatricians. Similar conclusions can be drawn with respect to those not working in birth centres or in family planning clinics