Opioid Prescribing Patterns Among Pregnant Women in Catalonia, 2011-2020

2.41% of 41,398 pregnancies in Catalonia were exposed to prescribed opioids, with prescribing increasing over time, particularly for non-cancer pain. This retrospective drug-utilization study used the SIDIAP database covering 75% of the Catalan population from April 2011 to March 2020. The dataset, authored by Veerle Driessen and last updated in 2026, examines exposure prevalence, duration, and concomitant analgesic use.

Use Cases

• Analyzing temporal trends in opioid prescribing during pregnancy based on the 2011-2020 study period.
• Comparing the use of weak versus strong opioids among pregnant women based on the reported 96.39% exposure to weak opioids.
• Investigating adherence to pain management guidelines based on the reported patterns of NSAID and paracetamol use before or during opioid therapy.
• Assessing the duration of opioid exposure during pregnancy based on the finding that over one-third of cases exceeded 30 days.

Strengths

• Covers 41,398 pregnancy episodes from a database representing 75% of the Catalan population.
• Provides a nine-year temporal coverage from April 2011 to March 2020.
• Includes specific metrics on exposure prevalence (2.41%), opioid type distribution, and exposure duration.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count for the underlying data tables is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• The dataset is small (64.9 KB), suggesting it may contain summary statistics rather than patient-level records.

Provenance

Source

Information System for Research in Primary Care (SIDIAP) database.

Collection Method

Retrospective drug-utilization cohort study.

Time Range

April 2011 to March 2020.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-04-22 05:49:17; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Catalonia, Spain.