ABSTRACT

Parental opioid use may negatively affect child health. However, the scope of existing knowledge in this area has not been mapped. We conducted a scoping review of articles (N=1188) describing various influences of parental opioid use on child health. The included studies (N=41) represented three types of such influences: through parental behaviors affected by opioids (n=22), through prenatal opioid exposure (n=9) and through poisoning (n=10). All three types of influences were associated with elevated risks for child health and development. Little research examined implications for child physical health and health service use; however, the existing evidence suggests concerning trends. One question remains largely unanswered, whether children’s health is affected directly by parental opioid use or by co-occurring factors such as parental mental health problems and/or environmental risks. Evidence is lacking on best practices to prevent/reduce health risks among children exposed to parental opioid use. Research and policy/practice implications are discussed.

摘要

父母使用阿片类药物可能会对儿童健康产生负面影响。然而，该领域现有知识的范围尚未绘制。我们对描述父母使用阿片类药物对儿童健康的各种影响的文章 (N=1188) 进行了范围审查。纳入的研究 (N=41) 代表了三种类型的此类影响：通过受阿片类药物影响的父母行为 (n=22)、通过产前阿片类药物暴露 (n=9) 和通过中毒 (n=10)。所有三种类型的影响都与儿童健康和发育的风险升高有关。很少有研究探讨对儿童身体健康和医疗服务使用的影响；然而，现有证据表明有关趋势。一个问题在很大程度上仍未得到解答，儿童的健康是否直接受到父母使用阿片类药物或同时受到诸如父母心理健康问题和/或环境风险等因素的影响。缺乏关于预防/减少父母使用阿片类药物的儿童健康风险的最佳做法的证据。讨论了研究和政策/实践影响。