Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #115995

Benita Walton-Moss, DNS, RN, FNP¹, Jessica Conrad, MSN, FNP¹, Linda McIntosh, PhD, RN², and Erika Kiefer, BSN, RN¹. (1) School of Nursing, Johns Hopkins University, 525 N. Wolfe St., Rm 427, Baltimore, MD 21205, 410-955-1290, bmoss@son.jhmi.edu, (2) School of Nursing, North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, 1601 East Market Street, Greensboro, NC 27411

Substantial support exists for the negative effects of abuse on low birthweight however, it is not known what impact abuse has among women with substance abuse problems. This report is part of a larger research project on individual characteristics and treatment adherence among pregnant women in a drug treatment program and is a preliminary analysis of 76 women with birth outcomes available for review. Women were interviewed once prior to delivery within 7 days of program admission. The following variables were entered into a multiple logistic regression analysis: age, education, average daily number of cigarettes, Gravida, number of gestational weeks at program entry, lifetime history of abuse, history of depression, anxiety, or suicide attempts, and number of gestational weeks at delivery. Since this was a preliminary analysis, variables were considered significant at p < .10. SPSS Version 13 was used for the analysis. Approximately 60% of these women were African American and 40% were Caucasian with a mean age of 31.2 years and 11.6 years of education with dependence on heroin or cocaine. Mean birthweight was 2877 grams with a low birthweight rate of 20.8%. More than half (57.1%) reported a lifetime history of abuse. Number of gestational weeks at delivery (p=.000) and lifetime history of abuse (p=.052) were the only variables independently associated with low birthweight. After repeating the analysis with the individual types of abuse, history of child abuse (p=.032) and number of gestational weeks at delivery (p=.000) were the only variables independently associated with low birthweight.

Learning Objectives:

• Summarize the literature regarding low birthweight among drug-dependent pregnant women.
• Describe the significant variable investigated in this study of factors related to low birthweight.
• Discuss the implications of abuse for the care of pregnant drug-dependent pregnant women.

Keywords: Drug Addiction, Pregnancy Outcomes

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.