Characteristics of pregnant women who reported alcohol use at admission to substance use treatment.

OBJECTIVES: The current study analyzed the sociodemographic, treatment-related, and other substance use characteristics among pregnant women who reported alcohol use and were admitted to substance use treatment for the first time.

METHODS: The Treatment Episode Data Set-Admission (TEDS-A) between 1992 and 2012 was used for conducting a cross-sectional study.

RESULTS: Among pregnant women admitted to substance use treatment for the first time (N=166,863), 43.1% reported alcohol use of whom half used alcohol as the primary drug of choice. The proportion of pregnant women reporting any alcohol use declined over the study period, while the proportions of subgroups within pregnant women reporting alcohol use remained stable within the population. Those reporting alcohol use only notably had the highest proportion of women aged 40 or older and non-Hispanic White who were more educated, employed, and married, compared to those reporting alcohol use as primary but also other substance use and those reporting other substance as primary drug of choice. Those reporting only alcohol also were more likely to be referred by the justice system to outpatient treatment. Marijuana was the most popular co-used substance among pregnant women who use alcohol as primary drug of choice in the dataset.

CONCLUSIONS: Differences in sociodemographic, treatment-related, and other substance use characteristics between the three subgroups may help inform public health interventions aimed at mitigating the effects of prenatal alcohol use on maternal and child health.