Prenatal testing and postpartum treatment for hepatitis C virus among women with opioid use disorder
Pregnancy·
- DOI
- 10.1002/pmf2.70382
- PMID
- —
- PMCID
- —
- OpenAlex
- W7203628407
- Study type
- Journal article
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Article type
- journal-article
- Integrity
- current
Why this research matters now
The observed discrepancies between recommended protocols and actual clinical practices indicate potential systemic barriers to standard care pathways for this demographic.
Structured evidence summary
Research question
What are the temporal patterns of hepatitis C screening during gestation and subsequent therapeutic interventions among expectant mothers managing substance use disorders?
Study design
A retrospective observational analysis leveraging electronic health record data extracted from a multi-institutional clinical network registry.
Population and setting
Expectant individuals with documented substance use disorders enrolled across seven American medical centers between early 2014 and mid-2021.
Main findings
Nearly thirty percent of recorded pregnancies showed no documentation of viral screening or diagnostic coding. Among screened cases, more than half yielded a positive infection result, yet fewer than ten percent of those with active viremia initiated antiviral therapy after delivery. Screening likelihood demonstrated variation across demographic categories and was notably higher for patients concurrently prescribed dependency medications.
Public-health relevance
The observed discrepancies between recommended protocols and actual clinical practices indicate potential systemic barriers to standard care pathways for this demographic.
Important limitations
Reliance on administrative health records may overlook undocumented clinical encounters or unrecorded prescriptions. The observational framework precludes definitive conclusions about whether dependency pharmacotherapies directly drive screening uptake.
GIDS interpretation
This manuscript establishes historical screening and treatment metrics within a specialized clinical cohort, serving as a reference benchmark for routine epidemiological tracking rather than reflecting real-time anomaly detection.
Related GIDS surveillance
Literature context does not validate, explain, or change a surveillance signal. Exact and contextual relationships are shown separately.
Evidence relationships
This article has 10 auditable classifier relationships to diseases, places, topics, and study design.