This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility:

Children whose mothers received opioid prescriptions during pregnancy have a higher rate of hospital admission in childhood than unexposed children, including unexposed siblings, according to a new study published in the open-access journal PLOS Medicine by Dong Keon Yon of Kyung Hee University College of Medicine, South Korea, and colleagues.

Over recent decades, opioid prescriptions and doses have risen in clinical practice, and a considerable proportion of pregnant women are exposed to these drugs. In the U.S., for example, data have shown that 14–22% of women filled a prescription for opioids during pregnancy.

Prenatal opioid exposure may disrupt infant development and immune system function, but prior studies have had limitations such as confounding factors, limited sample sizes or restricted follow-up durations.

In the new study, researchers used nationwide health insurance data on mothers and children in South Korea, following a cohort of 2,928,186 children born between 2010 and 2017 for up to 14 years. Children were classified as prenatally exposed to opioids if their mothers received two or more opioid prescriptions during pregnancy, and were compared both with unexposed children and with their own siblings.

Children with prenatal opioid exposure had a 28% higher rate of hospital admission than unexposed children (adjusted incidence rate ratio 1.28, 95% CI 1.28–1.29). The association was smaller but still significant when comparing siblings (aIRR 1.08, 95% CI 1.07–1.10).

Source link