Background: The health and financial burden of the opioid epidemic has been disproportionately hard on reproductive-aged parenting women. This crisis not only impacts the well-being of the mothers but is also spilling over to their children and families.
Objectives: Given the alarming rise of opioid use disorder (OUD) among mothers, this study seeks to examine the primary motivations and sources for the most recent prescription opioids misused among this population.
Methods: Using data from 2015 to 2016 National Survey of Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), this study analyzes data on reproductive-aged parenting women who have misused any prescription opioids in the previous 12 months. All estimates were weighted to account for NSDUH's complex survey design and to make the estimates nationally representative (weighted N ≈ 14.4 million).
Results: Results show that physicians (43%) are the most commonly reported source for obtaining prescription opioids among parenting women with OUD, whereas social sources (57%) are the most common source for parenting women who have misused opioids without OUD. A significant proportion of parenting women with OUD reported drug-related reasons (57%) and relief from physical pain (25%) as the two primary motivations for opioid misuse, while parenting women without OUD reported relief from physical pain (45%) and help with emotions or feelings (32%) as primary motivations.
Conclusions: Opioid misuse and use disorder among parenting women are a significant health risk. Policy initiatives that encompasses a comprehensive approach toward the crisis are warranted.
Keywords: Opioid misuse; reproductive age parenting women.