OBJECTIVE: To examine the psychometric properties of the Prenatal Opioid Use Perceived Stigma (POPS) scale and to assess the relationship of POPS scores to adequate prenatal care.

DESIGN: Prospective cohort study.

SETTING: Medical centers in Alabama, Ohio, and Pennsylvania (N = 4).

PARTICIPANTS: Women (N = 127) who took opioids during pregnancy and whose infants participated in the Outcomes of Babies With Opioid Exposure Study.

METHODS: Participants reported their perceptions of stigma during pregnancy by responding to the eight items on the POPS scale. We evaluated the instrument's internal consistency reliability (Cronbach's alpha), structural validity (factor analysis), and convergent validity (relationship with measures of similar constructs). In addition, to assess construct validity, we used logistic regression to examine the relationship of POPS scores to the receipt of adequate prenatal care.

RESULTS: The internal consistency of the POPS scale was high (Cronbach's α = .88), and all item-total correlations were greater than 0.50. The factor analysis confirmed that the items cluster into one factor. Participants who reported greater perceived stigma toward substance users and everyday discrimination in medical settings had higher POPS scores, which supported the convergent validity of the scale. POPS scores were significantly associated with not receiving adequate prenatal care, adjusted OR = 1.47, 95% confidence interval [1.19, 1.83], p < .001.

CONCLUSION: The psychometric testing of the POPS scale provided initial support for the reliability and validity of the instrument. It may be a useful tool with which to assess perceived stigma among women who take opioids, a potential barrier to seeking health care during pregnancy.

OBJECTIVE: To examine the psychometric properties of the Prenatal Opioid Use Perceived Stigma (POPS) scale and to assess the relationship of POPS scores to adequate prenatal care.

DESIGN: Prospective cohort study.

SETTING: Medical centers in Alabama, Ohio, and Pennsylvania (N = 4).

PARTICIPANTS: Women (N = 127) who took opioids during pregnancy and whose infants participated in the Outcomes of Babies With Opioid Exposure Study.

METHODS: Participants reported their perceptions of stigma during pregnancy by responding to the eight items on the POPS scale. We evaluated the instrument's internal consistency reliability (Cronbach's alpha), structural validity (factor analysis), and convergent validity (relationship with measures of similar constructs). In addition, to assess construct validity, we used logistic regression to examine the relationship of POPS scores to the receipt of adequate prenatal care.

RESULTS: The internal consistency of the POPS scale was high (Cronbach's α = .88), and all item-total correlations were greater than 0.50. The factor analysis confirmed that the items cluster into one factor. Participants who reported greater perceived stigma toward substance users and everyday discrimination in medical settings had higher POPS scores, which supported the convergent validity of the scale. POPS scores were significantly associated with not receiving adequate prenatal care, adjusted OR = 1.47, 95% confidence interval [1.19, 1.83], p < .001.

CONCLUSION: The psychometric testing of the POPS scale provided initial support for the reliability and validity of the instrument. It may be a useful tool with which to assess perceived stigma among women who take opioids, a potential barrier to seeking health care during pregnancy.

<p>The COVID-19 pandemic has caused an explosive adoption of telehealth in pediatrics . However, there remains substantial variation in evaluation methods and measures of these programs despite introduction of measurement frameworks in the last five years. In addition, for neonatal health care, assessing a telehealth program must measure its benefits and costs for four stakeholder groups - patients, providers, healthcare system, and payers. Because of differences in their role within the health system, each group's calculation of telehealth's value may align or not with one another, depending on how it is being used. Therefore, a common mental model for determining value is critical in order to use telehealth in ways that produce win-win situations for most if not all four stakeholder groups. In this chapter, we present important principles and concepts from previously published frameworks to propose an approach to telehealth evaluation that can be used for perinatal health. Such a framework will then drive future development and implementation of telehealth programs to provide value for all relevant stakeholders in a perinatal health care system.</p>

<p><strong>BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: </strong>We measured within-hospital concordance of mothers with opioid use disorder (OUD) and newborns with neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS) or opioid exposure (OE). Secondarily, we described the demographics of mothers and newborns with and without opioid-related diagnoses.</p>

<p><strong>METHODS: </strong>We used hospital discharge abstracts from California, Florida, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania in 2016. Descriptive statistics were used to compare newborns and mothers with and without opioid-related diagnoses. Within-hospital frequencies of mothers with OUD and newborns with NAS and OE were compared. Pearson's correlation coefficients were calculated.</p>

<p><strong>RESULTS: </strong>In 474 hospitals, we found 896 702 mothers (0.6% with OUD) and 910 867 newborns (0.47% with NAS, 0.85% with OE, and 0.07% with both). Although the frequency of mothers and newborns with opioid-related diagnoses in a hospital was strongly correlated ( = 0.81), more infants were identified than mothers in most hospitals (68.3%). Mothers with OUD were more likely to be white (79% vs 40.9%), on Medicaid (75.4% vs 44.0%), and receive care in rural hospitals (20.6% vs 17.6%), compared with mothers without OUD. Newborns with NAS had demographics similar to women with OUD. Newborns with OE were disproportionately Black (22% vs 7%) or Hispanic (22% vs 9%).</p>

<p><strong>CONCLUSIONS: </strong>More newborns are diagnosed with opioid-related disorders than mothers are. Although infants diagnosed with NAS had demographics similar to mothers with OUD, infants with OE were more likely to be Black or Hispanic. The lack of diagnostic coding of maternal OUD and the racial differences in diagnoses warrant attention.</p>

<p><strong>OBJECTIVES: </strong>To determine the extent to which newborns with neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS) are concentrated in some hospitals as compared with newborns without NAS and whether care quality and safety differed among these hospitals. We hypothesized that newborns with NAS would be cared for in poorer-quality hospitals.</p>

<p><strong>METHODS: </strong>Secondary analysis of 3 2016 data sets: (1) the panel study of effects of changes in nursing on patient outcomes-US survey of hospital registered nurses regarding work conditions and safety, (2) inpatient discharge abstracts, and (3) the American Hospital Association annual survey. Newborns in 266 hospitals from the 4 states where the panel study of effects of changes in nursing on patient outcomes was conducted were included. We used Lorenz curves to determine if newborns with NAS were concentrated in different hospitals than newborns without NAS and whether care quality and safety differed among those hospitals. Quality and safety were assessed by staff nurses by using standard survey questions.</p>

<p><strong>RESULTS: </strong>Of the 659 403 newborns in this study, 3130 were diagnosed with noniatrogenic NAS. We found that newborns with NAS were cared for in different hospitals compared with newborns without NAS (Gini coefficient 0.62, 95% confidence interval, 0.56-0.68) and that the hospitals in which they received care were rated as having poorer quality and safety (Gini coefficient 0.12, 95% confidence interval, 0.01-0.23).</p>

<p><strong>CONCLUSIONS: </strong>Newborns with NAS are cared for in poorer-quality hospitals than other newborns. Our findings are of concern because poorer-quality care is linked to patient outcomes. As stakeholders seek to address the opioid epidemic and improve outcomes of newborns with NAS, our findings suggest the importance of examining hospital factors.</p>

<p><strong>OBJECTIVE: </strong>To evaluate the association between chronic diuretic exposures and enteral electrolyte use in infants developing severe bronchopulmonary dysplasia (sBPD).</p>

<p><strong>STUDY DESIGN: </strong>Retrospective longitudinal cohort study in infants admitted to United States children's hospitals. We identified diuretic exposures and measured enteral NaCl and KCl use during pre-defined exposure risk-interval days. We used mixed-effects logistic regression to model the association between diuretic exposures and electrolyte use.</p>

<p><strong>RESULTS: </strong>We identified 442,341 subject-days in 3252 infants. All common diuretic classes and class combinations were associated with increased NaCl and KCl use. Thiazide monotherapy was associated with greater electrolyte use than loop monotherapy. The addition of potassium-sparing diuretics was associated with a limited reduction in KCl use compared to thiazide monotherapy.</p>

<p><strong>CONCLUSIONS: </strong>Chronic diuretic exposures are associated with increased NaCl and KCl use. Presumptions about the relative impact of different diuretic classes on electrolyte derangements may be inaccurate and require further study.</p>

<p><b>BACKGROUND: </b>The prevalence of opioid use during pregnancy is increasing. Two downstream effects are neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS), a postnatal withdrawal syndrome, and long-term prenatal opioid exposure (LTPOE) without documented withdrawal symptoms in the infant. Mental health characteristics of mothers of infants with NAS and LTPOE have not been described.</p><p><b>METHODS: </b>Using linked maternal and infant Medicaid claims and birth certificate data, we analyzed 15,571 infants born to Medicaid-insured women 15-24 years old in a mid-Atlantic city from 2007 to 2010. Pairwise comparisons with multinomial logistic regression, adjusting for maternal and infant covariates, were performed. We compared four mental health conditions among mothers of infants with NAS, infants with LTPOE without NAS, and controls: depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia.</p><p><b>RESULTS: </b>The prevalence of depression among mothers of infants with NAS, infants with LTPOE, and controls was 26, 21.1, and 5.5% respectively. Similar results were found for anxiety. In multivariable analysis, mothers of infants with NAS and LTPOE had approximately twice the depression risk as controls, while mothers of infants with LTPOE had 2.2 times the bipolar disorder risk and 4.6 times the schizophrenia risk as controls. The overall risk of mental health conditions in mothers of infants with NAS and LTPOE was similar.</p><p><b>DISCUSSION: </b>Mothers of infants with LTPOE who did not develop NAS are at similarly high risk for mental health conditions as mothers of infants with NAS, and both are at higher risk than controls. Therefore, those mothers of infants who did not develop symptoms of NAS despite LTPOE may be a vulnerable population that needs additional mental health support in the post-partum period.</p>

<p><strong>OBJECTIVES: </strong>To test the hypotheses that minority children with long-bone fractures are less likely to (1) receive analgesics, (2) receive opioid analgesics, and (3) achieve pain reduction.</p>

<p><strong>METHODS: </strong>We performed a 3-year retrospective cross-sectional study of children &lt;18 years old with long-bone fractures using the Pediatric Emergency Care Applied Research Network Registry (7 emergency departments). We performed bivariable and multivariable logistic regression to measure the association between patient race and ethnicity and (1) any analgesic, (2) opioid analgesic, (3) ≥2-point pain score reduction, and (4) optimal pain reduction (ie, to mild or no pain).</p>

<p><strong>RESULTS: </strong>In 21 069 visits with moderate-to-severe pain, 86.1% received an analgesic and 45.4% received opioids. Of 8533 patients with reassessment of pain, 89.2% experienced ≥2-point reduction in pain score and 62.2% experienced optimal pain reduction. In multivariable analyses, minority children, compared with non-Hispanic (NH) white children, were more likely to receive any analgesics (NH African American: adjusted odds ratio [aOR] 1.72 [95% confidence interval 1.51-1.95]; Hispanic: 1.32 [1.16-1.51]) and achieve ≥2-point reduction in pain (NH African American: 1.42 [1.14-1.76]; Hispanic: 1.38 [1.04-1.83]) but were less likely to receive opioids (NH African American: aOR 0.86 [0.77-0.95]; Hispanic: aOR 0.86 [0.76-0.96]) or achieve optimal pain reduction (NH African American: aOR 0.78 [0.67-0.90]; Hispanic: aOR 0.80 [0.67-0.95]).</p>

<p><strong>CONCLUSIONS: </strong>There are differences in process and outcome measures by race and ethnicity in the emergency department management of pain among children with long-bone fractures. Although minority children are more likely to receive analgesics and achieve ≥2-point reduction in pain, they are less likely to receive opioids and achieve optimal pain reduction.</p>