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Global, regional, and national sepsis incidence and mortality, 1990–2017: analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study
Open accessAbstract
BACKGROUND: Sepsis is life-threatening organ dysfunction due to a dysregulated host response to infection. It is considered a major cause of health loss, but data for the global burden of sepsis are limited. As a syndrome caused by underlying infection, sepsis is not part of standard Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) estimates. Accurate estimates are important to inform and monitor health policy interventions, allocation of resources, and clinical treatment initiatives. We estimated the global, regional, and national incidence of sepsis and mortality from this disorder using data from GBD 2017. METHODS: We used multiple cause-of-death data from 109 million individual death records to calculate mortality related to sepsis among each of the 282 underlying causes of death in GBD 2017. The percentage of sepsis-related deaths by underlying GBD cause in each location worldwide was modelled using mixed-effects linear regression. Sepsis-related mortality for each age group, sex, location, GBD cause, and year (1990-2017) was estimated by applying modelled cause-specific fractions to GBD 2017 cause-of-death estimates. We used data for 8·7 million individual hospital records to calculate in-hospital sepsis-associated case-fatality, stratified by underlying GBD cause. In-hospital sepsis-associated case-fatality was modelled for each location using linear regression, and sepsis incidence was estimated by applying modelled case-fatality to sepsis-related mortality estimates. FINDINGS: In 2017, an estimated 48·9 million (95% uncertainty interval [UI] 38·9-62·9) incident cases of sepsis were recorded worldwide and 11·0 million (10·1-12·0) sepsis-related deaths were reported, representing 19·7% (18·2-21·4) of all global deaths. Age-standardised sepsis incidence fell by 37·0% (95% UI 11·8-54·5) and mortality decreased by 52·8% (47·7-57·5) from 1990 to 2017. Sepsis incidence and mortality varied substantially across regions, with the highest burden in sub-Saharan Africa, Oceania, south Asia, east Asia, and southeast Asia. INTERPRETATION: Despite declining age-standardised incidence and mortality, sepsis remains a major cause of health loss worldwide and has an especially high health-related burden in sub-Saharan Africa. FUNDING: The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, the University of Pittsburgh, the British Columbia Children's Hospital Foundation, the Wellcome Trust, and the Fleming Fund.
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“A clear relationship can be seen – the poorest nations, all former European colonies, have the highest sepsis incidence”
From On race, human variation, and who gets and dies of sepsis (2022) · cites this paper as Rudd et al., 2020
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“8.2 million of the 11.1 million sepsis deaths worldwide that year occurred in low and middle income nations”
From On race, human variation, and who gets and dies of sepsis (2022) · cites this paper as Rudd et al., 2020
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“This approach follows the methods validated by many studies on the epidemiology of sepsis26, 27, 28, 29 and was used by Rudd and colleagues.10”
From Global burden of bacterial antimicrobial resistance 1990–2021: a systematic analysis with forecasts to 2050 (2024) · cites this paper as [10]
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“Previously published global estimates reported a 53% decline in age-standardised sepsis-related deaths from 1990 to 2017.10”
From Global burden of bacterial antimicrobial resistance 1990–2021: a systematic analysis with forecasts to 2050 (2024) · cites this paper as [10]
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“more people in middle and low income nations die of sepsis per incident than in wealthy nations”
From On race, human variation, and who gets and dies of sepsis (2022) · cites this paper as Rudd et al., 2020
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“The majority of the world's sepsis burden is borne by the least wealthiest nations, most former European colonies.”
From On race, human variation, and who gets and dies of sepsis (2022) · cites this paper as Rudd et al., 2020
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“Worldwide, the bulk of sepsis burden falls on marginalized peoples (Gracey & King, 2009; Rudd et al., 2020).”
From On race, human variation, and who gets and dies of sepsis (2022) · cites this paper as Rudd et al., 2020
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Metadata
- Authors
- Rudd, K. E., Johnson, S. C., Agesa, K. M., Shackelford, K. A., Tsoi, D., Kievlan, D. R., Colombara, D. V., Ikuta, K. S., Kissoon, N., Finfer, S., Fleischmann-Struzek, C., Machado, F. R., Reinhart, K. K., Rowan, K., Seymour, C. W., Watson, R. S., West, T. E., Marinho, F., Hay, S. I., Lozano, R., Lopez, A. D., Angus, D. C., Murray, C. J. L., & Naghavi, M.
- Affiliations
- University of Pittsburgh (US)
- University of Washington (US)
- University of British Columbia (CA)
- UNSW Sydney (AU)
- Jena University Hospital (DE)
- Seattle Children's Hospital (US)
- Universidade de São Paulo (BR)
- Corresponding author
- Naghavi, Mohsen
- ORCID
- Venue
- The Lancet
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2020-01
- Volume
- 395
- Issue
- 10219
- Pages
- 200-211
- ISSN
- 0099-5355 (ISSN-L)
- 0140-6736
- PMC
- PMC6970225
- OpenAlex
- W2998853022
- Cited by
- 7,971
- References
- 42
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1540 · 2025: 1722 · 2024: 1545 · 2023: 1195 · 2022: 899 · 2021: 735 · 2020: 329
- FWCI
- 567.33
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- The Lancet (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- LA Referencia (Red Federada de Repositorios Institucionales de Publicaciones Científicas) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Minerva Access (University of Melbourne) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Funders
- Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
- National Institutes of Health (T32HL007287, T32HL007820, R35GM119519)
- National Health and Medical Research Council (no 1117230)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Critical Care and Intensive Care Medicine › Sepsis Diagnosis and Treatment
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Global Health and Epidemiology
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Pediatrics, Perinatology and Child Health › Neonatal and Maternal Infections
- Keywords
- sepsis, sepsis incidence, sepsis mortality, global burden of disease, case fatality, underlying cause of death, age-standardized incidence rate, temporal trends, regional variation, sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, hospital records, cause-specific mortality, health policy interventions, resource allocation, health loss, nosocomial infections, infection-related mortality, sepsis surveillance
- MeSH terms
- Global Burden of Disease, Adolescent, Adult, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Cause of Death, Child, Child, Preschool, Female, Humans, Infant, Infant, Newborn, Male, Middle Aged, Socioeconomic Factors, Incidence, Age Distribution, Sex Distribution, Sepsis, Young Adult
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