Effects of Opioid Exposure During Pregnancy on Primary Grade Test Scores

• In Event: Substance Exposure and Children's Health

Abstract

Previous work links prenatal opioid exposure to a range of cognitive outcomes in childhood, including intellectual disability, low cognitive processing, and neurodevelopmental disorders. Yet, evidence is limited because most studies are unable to account for confounding factors, such as genetics or a deleterious parenting environment. We overcome these challenges using maternal and grandmother fixed effects approaches to estimate the effect of prenatal opioid exposure on primary grade test scores. We use linked administrative data that includes the universe of Medicaid-funded live births in Wisconsin from 2010 to 2014, with around 20 percent of the sample having opioid exposure during pregnancy from analgesic prescriptions, medications for opioid use disorder, and inferred illicit use (N=15,020). Results from our preferred specifications indicate that prenatal opioid exposure is associated with a decline of about .1 SD - .2 SD units in math and English standardized test scores. As our previous work demonstrated that prenatal opioid exposure is linked to intellectual disability and vision problems, these results show that the effects of prenatal opioid exposure on infant cognitive development increase over time, even after accounting for parenting environment and genetics.

Authors

• Taehwan Choi, University of Wisconsin-Madison
  Presenting Author

• Lawrence M. Berger, University of Wisconsin-Madison
  Non-Presenting Co-Author

• Christine Piette Durrance, University of Wisconsin-Madison
  Non-Presenting Co-Author

• Jessica Erin Pac, University of Wisconsin-Madison
  Non-Presenting Co-Author