Sepsis and meningitis in newborns are linked to a significantly raised risk of cerebral palsy, a study suggests — more than 70 times the usual risk in the case of culture-positive meningitis.

The Danish cohort study looked at one million full-term or near-term singleton births between 2004 and 2022. They found that 1017 (0.1%) children without sepsis or meningitis infections later had a cerebral palsy diagnosis recorded in a national registry.

Of 8151 children who were diagnosed with sepsis within a week of birth — either clinically or confirmed with culture — 68 were later diagnosed with cerebral palsy (0.8%).

The risk was similar after adjusting for factors such as sex, gestational age and maternal smoking, and remained, albeit attenuated, in a sibling-matched analysis involving 1655 sibling groups.