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Epidemiology and trends in neonatal early onset sepsis in California, 2010–2017

Journal of Perinatology volume 42, pages 940–946 (2022)Cite this article

Subjects

Abstract

Objective

This study evaluated patterns of neonatal early onset sepsis (EOS) disease burden to guide approaches to EOS management.

Study Design

Retrospective cohort.

Result

A total of 1535 EOS cases were identified amongst 2,872,964 neonates born between 2010 and 2017 at 136 NICUs within the California Perinatal Quality Care Collaborative. EOS incidence was 7.4 per 1000 (E coli: 4.3, GBS: 1.1) in preterm, 0.76 per 1000 (E coli: 0.29, GBS: 0.22) in late preterm, and 0.31 per 1000 (E coli: 0.07, GBS 0.13) in term neonates. There was no significant change in overall incidence, though an increase in E coli (p < 0.001) and decrease in GBS (p = 0.04) incidence were noted. After adjusting for gestational age, there was no difference in the odds of death by pathogen (p > 0.2).

Conclusion

The overall EOS incidence remained steady in California NICUs from 2010–2017, though an increase in E coli and decrease in GBS EOS incidence was noted.

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Fig. 1: Early Onset Sepsis Incidence.
Fig. 2: Early onset sepsis incidence over time.

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Data availability

Correspondence and request for data is available through NSJ.

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Acknowledgements

The work described in this manuscript was supported by the Stanford Maternal and Child Health Research Institute. Dr. Joshi is an Ernest and Amelia Gallo Endowed Postdoctoral Fellow of the Stanford Maternal and Child Health Research Institute.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Pediatrics, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA

    Neha S. Joshi, Tianyao Lu, Henry C. Lee & Adam Frymoyer

  2. Department of Management Science and Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA

    Karen Huynh

  3. Software Engineer, SeedFi, San Francisco, CA, USA

    Karen Huynh

  4. California Perinatal Quality Care Collaborative, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA

    Tianyao Lu & Henry C. Lee

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  1. Neha S. Joshi
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Contributions

All authors helped conceptualize and design study and critically interpreted data. All authors approved the final manuscript as submitted and agree to be accountable for all aspects of the work. NSJ drafted the initial manuscript with input from AF. HCL, KH, and TL critically reviewed the manuscript. KH and TL performed the statistical analyses. NSJ, HCL, and AF supervised data analysis.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Neha S. Joshi.

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Competing interests

AF is a scientific consultant for Takeda Pharmaceuticals unrelated to this work. The other authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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Joshi, N.S., Huynh, K., Lu, T. et al. Epidemiology and trends in neonatal early onset sepsis in California, 2010–2017. J Perinatol 42, 940–946 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41372-022-01393-7

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