Introduction: The prevalence of opioid abuse has increased throughout Northeast Tennessee. Subsequently, more infants are born drug-exposed or with Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome (NAS). According to the Tennessee Department of Health, hospitalizations for deliveries with maternal substance abuse tripled in Tennessee between 1999 and 2011. During this period, the inpatient hospitalization rate for NAS increased 11-fold. In 2017, there were 163 NAS cases reported in Northeast Tennessee. Depending on intrauterine and environmental exposures, there may be differences in health, growth, behavior, and development in infants. Our goal was to assess and explore those differences to help update education and care recommendations for pediatric primary care clinics.
Methods: This cross-sectional study was set in a Northeast Tennessee pediatric clinic. 120 patients seen for a newborn visit between June 30, 2013 and July 1, 2014 were randomly selected. An additional sample of all infants with suspected drug exposure was identified for this period based on diagnosis codes. In total, 99 infants had no drug exposure and 62 were drug-exposed. An 83-item chart abstraction template was developed. Data was analyzed by SPSS. The chi-squared test and Mann-Whitney U test were used, with a critical value of p<0.05 to determine significance. The Bonferroni correction was applied to account for multiple comparisons. The research protocol was reviewed and approved by the Institutional Review Board of East Tennessee State University.
Results: Of the 120 charts initially selected, 3.33% of infants were exposed to buprenorphine, 1.67% to methadone, 0.83% to marijuana, 0.83% to cocaine, and 1.67% to tobacco, 8.33% to benzodiazepine, and 1.67% to barbiturates during gestation. In total, 18.33% of infants had any drug exposure, 10.00% to any opiate, and 3.33% had a documented diagnosis of NAS in their chart. Prenatal drug exposure was significantly associated with multiple demographic factors as well as pediatric respiratory, behavioral, gastrointestinal, infectious disease, and cardiac conditions.
Conclusions: Prenatal drug exposure was significantly associated with multiple pediatric complications. This illustrates the significance of addressing the increased incidence of prenatal drug exposure in Northeast Tennessee. Future multivariate analyses will attempt to control for potential confounders. This analysis is retrospective and exploratory, and any associations should be confirmed with a prospective study. A weakness of this study includes potential under-diagnosis of drug exposure and NAS due to lack of documentation in the EHR. Additional research will include further comparison of maternal and infant complications in drug-exposed and non-exposed infants. This will allow for a better understanding of the risks associated with maternal drug exposure. Findings from these research projects will be used to inform clinical initiatives for NAS in Northeast Tennessee.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ETSU/oai:dc.etsu.edu:asrf-1210 |
| Date | 05 April 2018 |
| Creators | Shoemaker, Griffin, Kwak, Gloria, Jaishankar, Gayatri B., MD, Schetzina, Karen E., MD, MPH |
| Publisher | Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University |
| Source Sets | East Tennessee State University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | Appalachian Student Research Forum |
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