Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2025 Mar 1;44(3):e85-e89.
doi: 10.1097/INF.0000000000004572. Epub 2024 Sep 30.

Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Neonatal Sepsis

Vanishree Nandakumar  1 , Shady Hazzaa, Firas Saker, Hany Aly, Mohamed A Mohamed
Affiliations

Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Neonatal Sepsis

Vanishree Nandakumar et al. Pediatr Infect Dis J. .

Abstract

Background: Sepsis is a significant health burden in the neonatal population. Although disparities in neonatal care have been reported, there are no data on racial/ethnic disparities in the context of sepsis. Therefore, we aimed to assess racial/ethnic disparities in the prevalence and outcomes of neonatal sepsis.

Methods: The national inpatient Kids' Inpatient Database produced by the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project was used for the year 2019. The International Classification of Diseases, 10th revision codes were used to identify the primary outcome of the neonates diagnosed with sepsis. The χ 2 and Fisher tests were used to calculate odds ratios for categorical variables, and logistic regression was performed to calculate adjusted odds ratio (aOR) to account for confounders in neonatal sepsis.

Results: Of the total 3,512,817 patients, 202,103 patients with neonatal sepsis were identified across all racial and ethnic groups. Overall prevalence was statistically significant in Black [aOR, 1.13 (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.10-1.17)], Hispanic [aOR, 1.19 (95% CI, 1.15-1.22)], Asian/Pacific Islander [aOR, 1.10 (95% CI, 1.05-1.16)] and Native Americans [aOR, 1.17 (95% CI, 1.04-1.31)] compared with Whites. In Black infants, the OR for the overall mortality was 1.35 (95% CI, 1.28-1.42), and sepsis-related mortality was 1.20 (95% CI, 1.06-1.35) compared to Whites.

Conclusions: Although the prevalence of sepsis is marginally higher in Hispanic infants compared with Whites, the overall and sepsis-related mortalities are the highest in Black infants compared with all races and ethnic groups.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors have no funding or conflicts of interest to disclose.

Similar articles

See all similar articles

References

    1. Bohanon FJ, Nunez Lopez O, Adhikari D, et al. Race, income and insurance status affect neonatal sepsis mortality and healthcare resource utilization. Pediatr Infect Dis J. 2018;37:e178–e184.
    1. Barnette BW, Schumacher BT, Armenta RF, et al. Contribution of concurrent comorbidities to sepsis-related mortality in preterm infants ≤32 weeks of gestation at an academic neonatal intensive care network. Am J Perinatol. 2024;41:134–142.
    1. Celik IH, Hanna M, Canpolat FE, Pammi M. Diagnosis of neonatal sepsis: the past, present and future. Pediatr Res. 2022;91:337–350.
    1. Li Z, Karlsson O, Kim R, et al. Distribution of under-5 deaths in the neonatal, postneonatal, and childhood periods: a multicountry analysis in 64 low- and middle-income countries. Int J Equity Health. 2021;20:109.
    1. Sturrock S, Sadoo S, Nanyunja C, et al. Improving the treatment of neonatal sepsis in resource-limited settings: gaps and recommendations. Res Rep Trop Med. 2023;14:121–134.

MeSH terms