Sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) is the condition in which infants die during their sleep without warning. Some people believe that SIDS frequencies at which important periodic fluctuations in heart rate occur.
Spicer and colleagues* identified an important frequency component of the heart beat with a period of variation of about every six to eight heart beats. They determined this component, called the 6 to 8 component of the heart rate power spectrum or F68, in many infants. They also recorded the heart rate R, birth weight W, gestation age at birth (weeks at term) G, and the age at the time of making the F68 determination A.
Of the many infants studied, 49 were later (after they were no longer at risk for SIDS) selected at random to serve as controls to be compared to data from 16 infants who died of SIDS. These data are in Table D-39, Appendix D. A. What are the important predictors of SIDS (S)? Is there evidence that the F68 component of the heart rate power spectrum is a predictor of SIDS? B. Evaluate the goodness of fit and the residuals.