Maternal Food Insecurity is Positively Associated with Postpartum Mental Disorders in Ontario, Canada.
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ABSTRACT: Background
Household food insecurity has been associated with pregnancy complications and poorer birth outcomes in the United States and with maternal mental disorders in the United Kingdom, but there has been little investigation of the effects of food insecurity during this life stage in Canada.Objectives
Our objective was to examine the relationship between the food insecurity status of women during pregnancy and maternal and birth outcomes and health in infancy in Canada.Methods
We drew on data from 1998 women in Ontario, Canada, whose food insecurity was assessed using the Household Food Security Survey Module on the Canadian Community Health Survey, cycles 2005 to 2011-2012. These records were linked to multiple health administrative databases to identify indications of adverse health outcomes during pregnancy, at birth, and during children's first year of life. We included women who gave birth between 9 months prior and 6 months after their interview date, and for whom infant outcome data were available. Multivariable Poisson regression models were used to compare outcomes by maternal food security status, expressed as adjusted relative risks (aRR) with 95% CIs.Results
While pregnant, 5.6% of women were marginally food insecure and 10.0% were moderately or severely food insecure. Food insecurity was unrelated to pregnancy complications and adverse birth outcomes, but 26.8% of women with moderate or severe food insecurity had treatment for postpartum mental disorders in the 6-month postpartum period, compared to 13.9% of food-secure women (aRR, 1.86; 95% CI, 1.40-2.46). Children born to food-insecure mothers were at elevated risk of being treated in an emergency department in the first year of life (aRR, 1.18; 95% CI, 1.01-1.38).Conclusions
Maternal food insecurity during pregnancy in Ontario, Canada, is associated with postpartum mental disorders and a greater likelihood of infants being treated in an emergency department.
SUBMITTER: Tarasuk V
PROVIDER: S-EPMC7675029 | biostudies-literature |
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
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Project description:ObjectiveThe objective of this study was to evaluate the relationship between concurrent physician-based mental health services, all-cause mortality, and acute health service use for individuals enrolled in Opioid Agonist Treatment in Ontario, Canada.MethodsA cohort study of patients enrolled in opioid agonist treatment in Ontario was conducted between January 1, 2011, and December 31, 2015, in Ontario with an inverse probability of treatment weights using the propensity score to estimate the effect of physician-based mental health services. Treatment groups were created based on opioid agonist treatment patients' utilization of physician-based mental health services. Propensity score weighted odds ratios were calculated to assess the relationship between the treatment groups and the outcomes of interest. The outcomes included all-cause mortality using data from the Registered Persons Database, Emergency Department visits from the National Ambulatory Care Database, and hospitalizations using data from the Discharge Abstract Database. Encrypted patient identifiers were used to link across databases.ResultsA total of 48,679 individuals in OAT with mental disorders. Opioid agonist treatment alone was associated with reduced odds of all-cause mortality (odds ratio (OR) 0.4, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.3-0.4). Patients who received mental health services from a psychiatrist and primary care physician while engaged in OAT, the estimated rate of ED visits per year was higher (OR = 1.3, 95% CI 1.2-1.4) and the rate of hospitalizations (OR = 0.5, 95% CI 0.4-0.6) than in the control group.ConclusionOur findings support the view that opioid agonist treatment and concurrent mental health services can improve clinical outcomes for complex patients, and is associated with enhanced use of acute care services.
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