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  • Population Study Article
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Neonatal encephalopathy in India: spatiotemporal variations in declining mortality

Pediatric Research volume 98, pages 1746–1752 (2025)Cite this article

Abstract

Background

United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) target reduction of global neonatal and infant mortality. We examined trends in both neonatal/overall infant mortality (NMR/IMR) and those related to neonatal encephalopathy (NE) for India.

Methods

NE mortality data (1990–2019), stratified by age (0–6 days, 7–27 days) and location, were sourced from the Global Health Data Exchange. Birth cohort data were obtained from the UN Population Prospects. NE-NMR trends were analyzed using joinpoint regression to estimate annual percent change (APC) and average APC (AAPC). Pearson correlation assessed relationships between NE-NMR and sociodemographic index (SDI) or composite coverage index (CCI).

Results

Of 811 million live births (1990–2019), 4.3 million deaths (uncertainty interval [UI]: 3.6–5.3 million) were NE-related. NE-NMR declined from 6.7 to 3.5 (47.5%, AAPC: −2.2%)], while all-cause NMR and IMR declined from 57.3 to 21.6 (62.6%; AAPC: −3.3%) and from 83.2 to 29.9 (64.1%, AAPC: −3.5%) per 1000 livebirths, respectively. NE-NMR correlated inversely with SDI (R² = 0.57, p < 0.01) but not with CCI (R² = 0.08, p = 0.13). Regional disparities persisted.

Conclusions

NE-related neonatal mortality declines, though significant, lags overall neonatal and infant mortality improvements. Sustained, focused and community-oriented efforts are critical to closing these disparities to meet India’s SDG targets.

Impact

  • India has achieved significant reductions in neonatal encephalopathy (NE) and all-cause neonatal mortality over the past three decades.

  • From 1990 to 2019, infant mortality rate (IMR) declined from 83 to 29 per 1000 livebirths though NE’s share of IMR increased from 8% to 11.8%.

  • Significant interstate variations in NE mortality persist, highlighting the need for targeted state-specific healthcare strategies.

  • NE mortality strongly correlates with sociodemographic development, reflecting the critical role of broad social and economic progress.

  • Strategic and sustained investments in healthcare systems are vital to closing data gaps, reducing disparities, and achieving single-digit neonatal mortality rates by 2030.

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Fig. 1: Joinpoint regression trends of NE-IMR by timing of death (0–6 days; 7–27 days) in India, 1990–2019.
Fig. 2: Association of SDI and NE-IMR.
Fig. 3: Association of CCI and NE-IMR.
Fig. 4: Choropleth map of relative percent change in NE-IMR among Indian States, 1990-2021.

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Data availability

All data used in this study are publicly available from Global Health Data Exchange and available at https://vizhub.healthdata.org/gbd-results/. Analyzed datasets are available from the authors upon reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

No financial assistance was received in support of the study.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Neonatology, Cayuga Medical Center/Weill Cornell Medicine, Ithaca, NY, USA

    Ramesh Vidavalur

  2. Department of Pediatrics, Division of Neonatal and Developmental Medicine, Lucile Salter Packard Children’s Hospital, Stanford Children’s Health. Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA

    Vinod K. Bhutani

Authors
  1. Ramesh Vidavalur
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  2. Vinod K. Bhutani
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Contributions

Ramesh Vidavalur: Responsible for conceptualization, design, data collection, analysis and visualization of the data. He wrote the first draft of manuscript, reviewed and revised the final manuscript. Vinod K Bhutani: Provided critically important inputs into content of the manuscript, provided overall supervision, reviewed and revised the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ramesh Vidavalur.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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As the study used publicly available datasets with no patient specific information, it was deemed exempt from Institutional Review Board review.

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Vidavalur, R., Bhutani, V.K. Neonatal encephalopathy in India: spatiotemporal variations in declining mortality. Pediatr Res 98, 1746–1752 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41390-025-04009-w

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