Maternal prescribed opioid analgesic use during pregnancy and associations with adverse birth outcomes: A population-based study

BackgroundPublished research on prescribed opioid analgesic (POA) use during pregnancy and birth outcomes is limited in scope and has not adequately adjusted for potential confounding factors. To help address these gaps, we estimated associations between maternal POAs during pregnancy and two adverse birth outcomes using a large population-based dataset, multiple definitions of POA exposure, and several methods to evaluate the influence of both measured and unmeasured confounding factors.Methods and findingsWe obtained data by linking information from several Swedish registers and conducted a retrospective cohort study on a population-based sample of 620,458 Swedish births occurring between 2007 and 2013 (48.6% female; 44.4% firstborn). We evaluated associations between prenatal POA exposure and risk for preterm birth (PTB; p 0.001). This association was attenuated when we compared POA-exposed infants with acetaminophen-exposed infants (OR = 1.18, 95% CI 1.07–1.30, p 0.001), infants born to women who used POAs before pregnancy only (OR = 1.05, 95% CI 0.96–1.14, p = 0.27), and unexposed siblings (OR = 0.99, 95% CI 0.85–1.14, p = 0.92). We also evaluated associations with short-term versus persistent POA use during pregnancy and observed a similar pattern of results, although the magnitudes of associations with persistent exposure were larger than associations with any use or short-term use. Although short-term use was not associated with SGA (adjusted ORsingle-trimester = 0.95, 95% CI 0.87–1.04, p = 0.29), persistent use was associated with increased risk for SGA (adjusted ORmultiple-trimester = 1.40, 95% CI 1.17–1.67, p 0.001) compared with unexposed infants. The association with persistent exposure was attenuated when we used alternative comparison groups (e.g., sibling comparison OR = 1.22, 95% CI 0.60–2.48, p = 0.58). Of note, our study had limitations, including potential bias from exposure misclassification, an inability to adjust for all sources of confounding, and uncertainty regarding generalizability to countries outside of Sweden.ConclusionsOur results suggested that observed associations between POA use during pregnancy and risk of PTB and SGA were largely due to unmeasured confounding factors, although we could not rule out small independent associations, particularly for persistent POA use during pregnancy.