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Global, regional, and national burden of neonatal sepsis and other neonatal infections, 1990–2019: findings from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019

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Abstract

To provide an overview of the global, regional, and national incidence and mortality of neonatal sepsis and other neonatal infections (NS) and their change trends from 1990 to 2019, based on the data from the 2019 Global Burden of Disease study. This was a retrospective demographic analysis based on aggregated data. Annual incident cases, deaths, age-standardized incidence rate (ASIR), age-standardized mortality rate (ASMR) and their percentage changes of NS during 1990–2019 were collected from the 2019 Global Burden of Disease study. Globally, the incident cases of NS increased by 12.79% (from 5.59 million in 1990 to 6.31 million in 2019), and the deaths decreased by 12.93% (from 0.26 million in 1990 to 0.23 million in 2019). In the globe, the ASIR of NS per 100,000 population increased by 14.35% (from 85.21 in 1990 to 97.43 in 2019), and the ASMR decreased by 11.91% (from 3.97 in 1990 to 3.5 in 2019).

Conclusion: Increasing trends in incidence and decreasing trends in mortality of NS were observed worldwide from 1990 to 2019. More robust epidemiological research and effective health strategies are urgently needed to reduce the disease burden of neonatal sepsis worldwide.

What is Known:

• Neonatal sepsis has significant impacts on neonatal health, but estimates on the global burden and trends of neonatal sepsis are scarce and existing findings vary considerably.

What is New:

• Globally, there were 6.31 million incident cases of neonatal sepsis and 0.23 million deaths due to neonatal sepsis.

• Increasing trends in incidence and decreasing trends in mortality of neonatal sepsis were observed worldwide from 1990 to 2019, with the highest absolute burden in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia.

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Data availability

The datasets generated and/or analyzed during the current study are available in the GBD repository (https://vizhub.healthdata.org/gbd-results/).

Abbreviations

ASIR:

Age-standardized incidence rate

ASMR:

Age-standardized mortality rate

EOS:

Early onset sepsis

GBD:

Global burden of disease

GBS:

Group B streptococcu

ICD:

International Classification of Diseases

LMICs:

Low- and middle-income countries

LOS:

Late onset sepsis

NS:

Neonatal sepsis and other neonatal infections

SDG:

The Sustainable Development Goal

SDI:

Socio-demographic index

UI:

Uncertainty intervals

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Funding

This study was supported by grants from the Clinical Research Project of Children’s Hospital of Chongqing Medical University (YBXM 2019–007). The funding sources had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Neonatology, Children’s Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, 400014, Chongqing, China

    Jing Li, Lingling Xiang, Xinsi Chen, Siyu Li, Qian Sun & Ziyu Hua

  2. National Clinical Research Center for Child Health and Disorders, Chongqing, China

    Jing Li, Lingling Xiang, Xinsi Chen, Siyu Li, Qian Sun & Ziyu Hua

  3. China International Science and Technology Cooperation Base of Child Development and Critical Disorders, Chongqing, China

    Jing Li, Lingling Xiang, Xinsi Chen, Siyu Li, Qian Sun & Ziyu Hua

  4. Ministry of Education Key Laboratory of Child Development and Disorders, Chongqing, China

    Jing Li, Lingling Xiang, Xinsi Chen, Siyu Li, Qian Sun & Ziyu Hua

  5. Department of Neonatology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Zheng Zhou University, Zhengzhou, Henan, China

    Xiuyong Cheng

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  1. Jing Li
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  4. Siyu Li
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Contributions

JL contributed to the study conception and design. LLX, XSC, SYL and QS performed the material preparation, data collection and analysis. JL wrote the first draft of the manuscript. ZYH and XYC edited and revised the final manuscript. All authors read and approved the final version for publication.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ziyu Hua.

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Ethics approval

No ethical approval was obtained since the data included in this study were de-identified and publicly available.

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The need for informed consent was waived.

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Not applicable.

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Additional information

Communicated by Daniele De Luca.

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Li, J., Xiang, L., Chen, X. et al. Global, regional, and national burden of neonatal sepsis and other neonatal infections, 1990–2019: findings from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019. Eur J Pediatr 182, 2335–2343 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00431-023-04911-7

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