Objective: To examine changes in prenatal opioid prescription exposure following new guidelines and policies.
Study design: Cohort study of all (262,284) Wisconsin Medicaid-insured live births 2010-2019. Prenatal exposures were classified as analgesic, short term, and chronic (90+ days), and medications used to treat opioid use disorder (MOUD). We describe overall and stratified temporal trends and used linear probability models with interaction terms to test their significance.
Result: We found 42,437 (16.2%) infants with prenatal exposure; most (90.5%) reflected analgesic opioids. From 2010 to 2019, overall exposure declined 12.8 percentage points (95% CI = 12.1-13.1). Reductions were observed across maternal demographic groups and in both rural and urban settings, though the extent varied. There was a small reduction in chronic analgesic exposure and a concurrent increase in MOUD.
Conclusion: Broad and sustained declines in prenatal prescription opioid exposure occurred over the decade, with little change in the percentage of infants chronically exposed.
© 2024. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature America, Inc.