Characteristics associated with pregnant women's utilization of substance abuse treatment services

FRANÇAIS :
Il y a pénurie de programmes de traitement de labus de drogue destinés aux femmes enceintes. Cependant, même quand des programmes spécialisés sont offerts à ces femmes à risque, certaines dentre elles choisissent de ne pas entrer en traitement. Pour obtenir une meilleure compréhension des caractéristiques des femmes enceintes toxicomanes concernant leur décision relative à lutilisation de traitement, cette étude comparait deux groupes
: 93 femmes ayant accepté le traitement et 89 layant refusé. A laide dinterviews ont été rassemblées des informations sur les caractéristiques socio-démographiques, les types et niveaux dusage de drogues, lusage de drogues de membres de la famille, les violences éventuelles subies. Les analyses bivariées ont montré que, comparées aux femmes déclinant loffre de traitement, les femmes qui lacceptaient étaient plus susceptibles dêtre afro-américaines, seules (jamais mariées) et avaient un plus grand nombre denfants. Leurs problèmes dusage de drogues étaient plus importants et elles avaient souvent déjà eu recours à un traitement auparavant. Elles étaient deux fois plus susceptibles davoir des partenaires prenant de lalcool et trois fois plus susceptibles davoir subi des violences physiques ou sexuelles pendant la grossesse. Lutilisation de procédures de régression logistique pour examiner simultanément limpact relatif de toutes les variables sur lacceptation du traitement a permis de dégager quatre prédicats indépendants importants
: race de la femme (afro-américaine), usage de drogues illégales durant la grossesse, traitement antérieur, usage de cigarettes avant la grossesse.
ENGLISH :
There is a dearth of substance abuse treatment programs available to pregnant substance-using women. However, even when specialized substance abuse treatment programs are offered to these high-risk women, some women will choose not to enter treatment. To gain a better understanding concerning the characteristics of pregnant substance-using women related to their decisions regarding treatment utilization, this study compares two groups of substance users: 93 pregnant women who accepted offered substance-related treatment services, and 89 pregnant women who declined the same services. All women were interviewed and information was gathered concerning their sociodemographic characteristics, their types and levels of substance use, substance use by their family members, and their experiences of being victims of violence. Bivariate analyses found that, compared to women who declined treatment, women who accepted treatment were more likely to be African-American, to be single (never married), and to have a significantly greater number of children. Bivariate analyses also showed that, compared to women who declined treatment, women who accepted treatment had more severe substance abuse problems and were more likely to have previously undergone treatment for a substance problem. Women who accepted treatment were twice as likely to have partners who used alcohol and were three times more likely to have experienced physical and/or sexual violence during pregnancy. When logistic regression procedures were used to simultaneously examine the relative impact of all of the variables on treatment utilization, the four strongest independent predictors positively associated with treatment utilization were the women's race (being African-American), the women's use of illegal drugs during pregnancy, the women's past treatment for substance abuse, and the women's use of cigarettes before pregnancy. (Author' s abstract)