Validity of the prenatal risk overview for detecting drug use disorders in pregnancy

Abstract

Objective: To validate the Prenatal Risk Overview (PRO) drug use questions against a structured diagnostic interview among pregnant women.

Design and sample: Prenatal care patients were administered the PRO at intake and then asked to consent to a research diagnostic interview. Of 1,367 women asked to participate, 1,274 consented and 745 completed the study.

Measures: Three drug use items comprised one of 13 PRO psychosocial risk domains. The Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV (SCID) was used as the validation instrument. To assess criterion validity, the Moderate/High and High Risk classifications were cross-tabulated with SCID Drug Use Disorder diagnoses.

Results: In response to the PRO, almost one third of participants (29.4%) reported drug use during the 12 months pre-pregnancy awareness and 11.0% reported use post-pregnancy awareness; 7.0% met SCID diagnostic criteria for Drug Abuse, Drug Dependence, or both, primarily for marijuana use. Drug Use Disorder sensitivity and specificity rates for the PRO Moderate/High Risk classifications were 88.5% and 74.3%, respectively, and for High Risk only, 78.8% and 87.3%.

Conclusion: The PRO yielded substantial self-reporting of drug use before and after pregnancy awareness with high sensitivity and specificity for detecting Drug Use Disorders. PRO results can inform decisions about appropriate clinical responses.