More Women with Opioid Use Disorder reported

The number of pregnant women with opioid use disorder (OUD) at labor and delivery more than quadrupled from 1999 to 2014, according to a new analysis by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). This first-ever multi-state analysis of trends, published in the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, reveals significant increases in the 28 states with available data. People with OUD have a problematic pattern of opioid use that can result in health problems, disability, or failure to meet major responsibilities at work, school or home. OUD during pregnancy has been associated with a range of negative health outcomes for both mothers and their babies, including maternal death, preterm birth, stillbirth, and neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS). Using data from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality’s (AHRQ) Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP) National Inpatient Sample, researchers found that the national prevalence rate of OUD increased from 1.5 per 1,000 delivery hospitalizations in 1999 to 6.5 in 2014. On average, the national prevalence rate grew by 0.39 cases per 1,000 each year. Analysis of data from the AHRQ’s HCUP State Inpatient Databases found significant increases in all of the 28 states with at least three years of data available for analysis. Over the study period, the average annual rate increases were lowest in California and Hawaii (growth of less than 0.1 cases per 1,000 each year) and highest in Maine, New Mexico, Vermont, and West Virginia (all with growth of more than 2.5 cases per 1,000 each year). The state-level analysis found that the OUD rates varied by state, from the lowest rates in D.C. (0.7 cases/1,000 hospital births) and Nebraska (1.2) to the highest rates in West Virginia (32.1) and Vermont (48.6). The report notes that while variability by state may reflect differences in opioid prescribing rates or the prevalence of illicit drug use, it could also reflect improved screening, diagnosis, and treatment of OUD and NAS. For more information about CDC’s work to improve maternal and infant health outcomes, visit www.cdc.gov/reproductivehealth.