Mothers living in moderately poor neighborhoods are more than twice as likely to misuse opioid prescription drugs, compared to mothers living in neighborhoods with high poverty, according to a study published in the February issue of Drug and Alcohol Dependence.
The study included data from 3,444 mothers participating in the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study.
Mothers living in moderately poor neighborhoods (defined as those where 10% to 20% of residents are in poverty) were more than twice as likely to misuse prescription drugs than mothers living in neighborhoods with high poverty (more than 20% of residents living in poverty).
Mothers living in neighborhoods with high poverty showed no difference in prescription drug misuse than those living in either affluent (3% poverty) or low-poverty neighborhoods (3% to 10% poverty).
“We found that there was a direct association between moderate poverty and misuse that was not explained by other factors like social support and neighborhood social functioning,” says lead author Christina Bernhardt, Ph.D., a research associate at the Georgia Health Policy Center.
“Public health initiatives aimed at reducing opioid misuse should focus on vulnerable groups, like low-income mothers living in disadvantaged neighborhoods.”
Read the full study here.