AI Insight
A study published in PLOS Medicine found that children whose mothers received opioid prescriptions during pregnancy had higher rates of hospital admissions during childhood compared to unexposed children, including their own unexposed siblings. The research was conducted by Dong Keon Yon and colleagues from Kyung Hee University College of Medicine in South Korea. The sibling comparison design helps control for familial and genetic factors that might otherwise confound the results.
Why it matters
This finding has important implications for prenatal care and prescribing practices during pregnancy. Healthcare providers may need to more carefully weigh the risks and benefits of opioid prescriptions for pregnant women, and children with prenatal opioid exposure may benefit from increased health monitoring during childhood.
Understand the Science
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.
Source: Opioid prescriptions during pregnancy linked to higher rates of childhood hospital admission