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The problem
Intervention: Identification and monitoring of children with prenatal opioid exposure; long-term developmental support and intervention
Who it was tested with: Children aged 0-18 years with prenatal opioid exposure compared to drug-free controls across 26 cohort studies.
Children or communities are compared with a group that did not receive the intervention, or followed over years. This is the design that best separates what the intervention did from everything else that changed.
"Only published cohort studies comparing the results of age-appropriate standardized cognitive and/or motor tests between children with any POE (aged 0-18 years) with drug-free controls were included. Data were pooled using a random-effects model." This systematic review with meta-analysis of cohort studies provides observational evidence that prenatal opioid exposure is negatively associated with child neurodevelopment, but confounding factors cannot be ruled out as alternative explanations.
Causality cannot be established from cohort studies; the contribution of prenatal opioid exposure versus other factors such as withdrawal treatment, maternal health, and postnatal environment cannot be isolated. Heterogeneity in study populations, exposure types, and measurement tools may affect the pooled estimates.
Across countries and designs
1 study · 2 countries
