Table 2.

Characteristics of included studies

Study	Design	Setting; Country	Number of infants	Age range	Inclusion criteria	Exclusion criteria	Diagnostic reference standard	Common diagnoses	Mortality/1000
YICSSG 13	Prospective, consecutive	Outpatient Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Bolivia, South Africa, Ghana	0–6 days: 3177 7–59 days: 5712	<60 days	Infants <60 days brought to the hospital or outpatient clinic with an acute illness	Well baby visits, non-resident in study area, previous enrolment in study, repeat episode of same illness Need for immediate cardiopulmonary resuscitation, hospitalisation in the previous 2 weeks (except for delivery), congenital malformation	Expert paediatrician backed up with laboratory data (eg, blood, CSF, chest radiography, pulse oximetry)	Sepsis, Pneumonia, Meningitis	0–6 days: Range: 0–120 7 to 60 days: Range: 0–70
English et al 4	Prospective, consecutive	Outpatient/ Inpatient Kenya	1236	<60 days	Hospital-based birth cohort weighing ≥1.5 kg All infants aged <90 days admitted to hospital	Not reported	Admitting doctor backed up with simple diagnostic tests (full blood count, blood culture, lumbar puncture, chest x-ray)	Pneumonia, Meningitis, Prematurity, Sepsis, Acute respiratory infections, Skin infections, Purulent conjunctivitis	0–6 days: 320 7–60 days: 70
Weber et al 6	Prospective, consecutive	Hospitals or outpatient clinics Ethiopia, The Gambia, Papua New Guinea, The Philippines	3303	<60 days	Infants <91 days with possible acute infections	Infants with congenital heart disease and hypoxemia	Expert paediatrician backed up with laboratory data (eg, blood culture, chest radiograph, lumbar puncture, pulse oximetry)	Pneumonia, Hypoxaemia, Bacteremia, Meningitis	0–59 days: 59
Duke et al 12	Prospective, consecutive	Outpatient clinic Papua New Guinea	511	<60 days	All sick young infants presenting to rural health centres	Not reported	Mortality outcome following a review of primary healthcare workers’ history taking and clinical examination	Neonatal sepsis, Pneumonia, Malaria	0–59 days: 59.8
Bang et al 11	Prospective, consecutive	Community India	3567	<28 days	All neonates born in study villages	Not reported	Mortality outcome judged by a neonatologist as due to sepsis	‘Sepsis’ (defined as sepsis, meningitis, pneumonia)	0–28 days: 51.2

CSF, cerebrospinal fluid, YICSSG, Young Infants Clinical Signs Study Group.