Health insurance coverage is associated with lower odds of alcohol use by pregnant women
"Prenatal substance use is a major public health concern , and poses significant threats to maternal and child health," said Dr. Qiana L. Brown, postdoctoral research fellow in the Department of Epidemiology, and the study's first author. "The widespread availability of health insurance through the Affordable Care Act may serve as a universal prevention intervention to help reduce prenatal substance use." The researchers studied data from 97,788 women ages 12 to 44 years old who participated in the U.S. National Survey of Drug Use and Health from 2010 to 2014. Among these women, 3 percent were pregnant. Controlling for age, race, and ethnicity, education, marital status, and poverty, there were significant differences between pregnant and non-pregnant women in the relationship between health insurance and alcohol use and health insurance and tobacco use. A larger proportion of pregnant women used alcohol and tobacco in their first trimester as compared to ...