Children whose mothers filled two or more opioid prescriptions during pregnancy had about 8% more hospital admissions than their own siblings who were not exposed, according to a study published Oct. 13 in PLOS Medicine. In a broader comparison with matched, unrelated children, the gap was 28%.
That drop is the most important part of the finding. Comparing siblings removes many family factors, such as genetics, home environment, and parental health, that could explain why some children are hospitalized more often. When those factors were partly accounted for, most of the apparent risk disappeared.
