Journal Article

Evaluating outcomes of a three-year case management program for mothers with prenatal substance use according to race/ethnicity, Washington State, 2006–2017

Graham, J. Christopher, Grant, Therese M., Stoner, Susan A.

2023

Overview

Background Well-designed public health interventions ideally aspire to reduce health disparities between racial and ethnic groups. Yet, there remains virtually no research examining racial/ethnic disparities in interventions for marginalized perinatal populations with substance use disorders (SUD). We sought to examine whether there were racial/ethnic differences at intake, in retention, and in program outcomes among pregnant or postpartum women with prenatal substance use enrolled in a three-year intensive case management intervention. We hypothesized that: (1) at baseline, numerous racial/ethnic disparities in well-being, health, and health care would be observed, and (2) after the three-year intervention few racial/ethnic disparities in maternal and child health and welfare would be found. Methods We used self-reported data from 3,165 women aged 18 to 45 years enrolled in the Parent-Child Assistance Program in Washington State between May 10, 2006, and September 21, 2017. We used Fisher-Freeman-Halton Exact Tests and t -tests to compare racial/ethnic groups at program enrollment and exit and logistic regression to examine likelihood of completing the intervention by group, controlling for other factors. Results Despite numerous racial/ethnic differences at enrollment, there were no such differences in outcomes among those who finished the program and completed an exit interview. Different racial/ethnic groups received comparable case manager time. American Indians/Alaska Natives were less likely to finish the program (Adjusted Odds = 0.66). Conclusions Participants who finished the program achieved comparable outcomes regardless of race/ethnicity. More work is needed to understand why American Indian/Alaska Native women were less likely than the others to finish the program and to close this service gap.

• Publisher: BioMed Central,BioMed Central Ltd,Springer Nature B.V,BMC
• Subject: Addictions / Alcohol use / American Indians / Aspiration / Biostatistics / Case management / Child & adolescent mental health / Child welfare / Children / Childrens health / Clinical outcomes / Complications and side effects / COVID-19 / Cultural differences / Disorders / Drug use / Enrollments / Environmental Health / Epidemiology / Ethnic differences / Ethnic factors / Ethnic groups / Ethnicity / Families & family life / Health aspects / Health disparities / Health education / Health promotion / Health services / Health status / Hispanic Americans / Indigenous peoples / Intensive treatment / Intervention / Marginality / Marijuana / Maternal & child health / Maternal characteristics / Medical case management / Medicine / Medicine & Public Health / Mental health / Methods / Minority & ethnic groups / Mothers / Native Americans / Pandemics / Parent-child relations / Perinatal / Pregnancy / Pregnant women / Prenatal care / Prenatal drug exposure / Prescription drugs / Prevention / Public Health / Race / Racial differences / Risk factors / Social aspects / Substance abuse / Substance abuse treatment / Substance use / Substance use disorder / Vaccine / Welfare / Well being / Women / Womens health