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Detecting Patterns of Prescription Drug Use During Pregnancy and Lactation with Visualization Techniques
Ou Stella Liang1,2, Jeanne S Sheffield3, Casey Overby Taylor4,5,6
1Department of Health Policy and Management, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD.
Background:
Pharmacovigilance studies for the pregnancy population are an important tool to address the teratogenic and maternal effects of prescription drugs.
Objectives:
We sought to leverage existing data to provide empirical evidence that reflects current drug utilization by pregnant/lactating women for pharmacovigilance and effective study designs.
Methods:
Temporal patterns of prescription drug use during pregnancy and lactation for four clinical conditions were visualized using a R package and an administrative claims dataset representing nationwide privately-insured women.
Results:
During the years 2010 to 2014, there was a significant increase (p < 0.001) in overall use of opioid, antidepressant, antihypertensive, and antidiabetic prescriptions. Hydrocodone, sertraline, labetalol, and metformin were the most common prescriptions for perinatal use in its respective category. Trimester-specific prescription patterns were reported.
Conclusions:
Visualization of administrative claims data can quickly detect temporal patterns of prescription drug use during pregnancy and lactation.
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