Perceived barriers to mental health and substance use treatment among US childbearing-aged women: NSDUH 2008-2014

Mental Health Treatment Utilization and Unmet Mental Health Needs Among Black Reproductive-Age Women in the United States

OBJECTIVE

Black women in the United States experience increased risk for mental disorders and are less likely to have access to appropriate mental health treatment compared with White women. To develop culturally responsive strategies to improve Black women's access to mental health treatment, the authors evaluated social determinants associated with mental health treatment utilization and unmet mental health needs among Black reproductive-age women with serious psychological distress.

METHODS

The authors performed a secondary analysis of data from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health. Data from 2009 to 2019 were pooled and restricted to Black women ages 18-44 years with serious psychological distress (N=4,171). Logistic regressions were conducted to identify personal and social determinants (e.g., education, employment status, poverty, and insurance status) of mental health treatment utilization, alternative mental health treatment utilization (e.g., spiritual support and self-help), and perceived unmet mental health needs.

RESULTS

Education and employment status were significantly associated with all three outcomes. Among the women who reported unmet mental health needs, opposition to treatment and cost were the highest endorsed barriers. Differences were found by pregnancy status, with pregnant women being significantly less likely to endorse cost (p<0.001) and more likely to endorse time and transportation as barriers (p<0.01) to receiving mental health treatment.

CONCLUSIONS

Strategies to improve mental health outcomes for Black women should focus on reducing cost and transportation barriers and on the development of culturally responsive intervention approaches that address Black women's concerns about mental health treatment.

Exploring social connectedness, isolation, support, and recovery factors among women seeking substance use treatment

This cross-sectional study examined the relationship between social variables, recovery orientation, and recovery capital among a sample of n = 30 women actively seeking substance use disorder treatment at a community-based facility in the Midwest United States. Results indicated a positive association between social connectedness, abstinence recovery orientation (p = .048) and social isolation (p = .010). Social isolation was positively associated with abstinence recovery orientation (p = .004) and negatively related to recovery capital (p = .003). Social support was positively correlated with positive expectancy (p = .030) and recovery capital (p = .033). Further, moderate/high alcohol use was related to lower normal living scores (t(28) = 3.10, p = .004), lower recovery capital scores (t(28) = 4.15, p < .000), and higher social isolation scores (t(28) = -2.53, p = .017). Screening at moderate/high risk for cannabis use was related to lower normal living scores (t(28) = 3.01, p = .005), and lower positive expectancy scores (t(28) = 3.03, p = .005). Finally, screening for moderate/high risk for polysubstance use was related to lower normal living orientation (t(28) = 2.52, p = .018) and recovery capital scores (t(28) = 2.79, p = .009). Current findings may inform strategies for examining social connectedness and social isolation variables in future clinical practice, policy, and scholarship.

Substance Use-Associated Infant Maltreatment Report Rates in the Context of Complex Prenatal Substance Use Policy Environments

State responses to substance use during pregnancy have included policies designed to increase access to substance use treatment as well as punish such substance use. Prior research has found that punitive policies are associated with increased rates of child maltreatment reporting, but it is unclear if the presence of punitive-promoting policies also moderate the association between access-promoting polices and maltreatment reports. Using data from the National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System and state-level fixed effects models, this study investigates how interactions between access-promoting and punitive prenatal substance use policies are associated with rates of substance use-associated maltreatment reports among infants. In states with punitive policies, access-promoting policies were associated with smaller decreases in these reports than in states without punitive policies. In some cases, access-promoting policies were associated with greater increases in these reports when punitive policies were also present than when only one type of policy was adopted. Interactions between prenatal substance use policies may result in unintended and counterproductive consequences for maternal and child health and the child welfare system.

Cohort effects of women's mid-life binge drinking and alcohol use disorder symptoms in the United States: Impacts of changes in timing of parenthood

BACKGROUND AND AIMS

Alcohol use is increasing among women in mid-life concurrently with societal changes in timing of parenthood and changing cultural norms, which may influence alcohol use. The aim of this study was to determine if age of first parenting was associated with excessive drinking [i.e. past 2-week binge drinking and past 5-year alcohol use disorder (AUD) symptoms] among women during mid-life in the United States and to determine if there were pronounced cohort effects influencing these relationships.

DESIGN

This was a retrospective cohort, longitudinal study.

SETTING, PARTICIPANTS AND MEASUREMENTS

Data were drawn from the Monitoring the Future survey, an annual ongoing survey of high school students' substance use behaviors in the United States. Participants were women who completed the age 35 survey between 1993 and 2019, corresponding to high school senior years 1976-2002 (n = 9988). Past 2-week binge drinking and past 5-year AUD symptoms were self-reported. Age of first parenting was self-reported.

FINDINGS

Binge drinking and AUD symptoms were higher among women in recent than in older cohorts. Women from the 2018-19 cohort had increased odds of binge drinking [odds ratio (OR) = 1.73, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.41-2.12] and AUD symptoms (OR = 1.51, CI = 1.27-1.80) relative to women from the 1993-97 cohort. Throughout cohorts, there was an inverse association between transition to parenthood and excessive drinking outcomes (e.g. range for ORs for binge drinking among those without children compared with those who had had children between the ages of 18 and 24: 1.22-1.55). Simultaneously, there was a population shift towards delaying parenting in recent cohorts (i.e. 54% of women in the 1993-97 cohort had children before age 30 compared with 39% in the two recent cohorts), increasing the size of the group at highest risk for excessive drinking.

CONCLUSIONS

In the United States, subgroups of women at highest risk of excessive drinking appear to be expanding, probably supported in part by a trend towards delayed parenting.