Relation between the use of licit and illicit drugs during pregnancy and prematurity

Abstract

INTRODUCTION:Cases of drug addiction in pregnancy have been on the rise over the years, revealing themselves as a social problem, mostly due to low socio-economic levels, lack of schooling and dysfunctional homes. Substance abuse can lead to higher incidences of clinical and obstetric complications and damage to the fetus. OBJECTIVE: Correlate the use of legal and illicit drugs with prematurity. METHODOLOGY: This will be a cross-sectional study using a descriptive analysis of puerperal women's medical records, provided by Basic Health Units in the South Zone of the city of São Paulo, specifically in the Grajaú district, which will be tabulated, spreadsheeted and organized into figures and tables for better understanding and presentation. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION: We analyzed 65 medical records from 2020 to 2023, in which 69.2% of the women had a pregnancy classified as high risk. In addition, 15.38% of the infants analyzed were born prematurely, 80% of whom had already been classified as high-risk since prenatal care. In addition, 18.75% of the women who used legal drugs during pregnancy had premature births and 6.25% had post-term births. CONCLUSION: Comparing the data collected in the study with that from the SMS-SP's CEInfos, it was observed that despite the many cases of prematurity reported in the medical records, the relationship between prematurity and drug use during pregnancy was insufficient to justify the high rate of prematurity.