DOI: 10.3886/icpsr02835.v2
title: National Pregnancy and Health Survey: Drug Use Among Women Delivering Live Births, 1992
title: Version 2

description: The primary objective of the National Pregnancy and Health
Survey (NPHS) was to produce national annual estimates of the
percentages and numbers of mothers of live newborns in the United
States who used selected licit and illicit drugs in the 12 months
prior to delivery. A further objective was to describe patterns of
prenatal substance use among demographic subgroups of
women. Information on demographic and socioeconomic characteristics,
obstetric history, and drug treatment of women who delivered infants
at sampled hospitals was obtained through an interviewer-administered
questionnaire, while data on substance use before and during pregnancy
were collected through a questionnaire completed by the respondent and
concealed from the interviewer. Respondents were asked about use of
the following substances: alcohol, amphetamines, analgesics, cocaine,
crack cocaine, barbiturates, hallucinogens, hashish, heroin,
marijuana, methadone, methamphetamine, sedatives, stimulants, tobacco,
and tranquilizers. Additionally, information was collected on the
respondent's pregnancy, prenatal care, delivery, previous pregnancies,
and background. Additional data were obtained from the mothers' and
infants' medical records. Urine specimens collected routinely by the
hospital on obstetric admissions were tested for selected
drugs. Finally, in a subsample of six hospitals, hair specimens were
requested from respondents to evaluate the potential of hair as a
source of toxicological data in future studies.
description: When a survey design incorporates clustering and differential sampling of some subpopulations, variance
estimates that assume a simple random sample design can substantially underestimate the true variability of
the sample estimates. For the NPHS the variability of the sample estimates was estimated using jackknife
replication (option JK2 in WesVarPC) using the full sample weight TRMADJMW and the following
eighteen (18) replicate weights: TADJ1 to TADJ18. If infant estimates are desired, each of
these weights (including the full sample weight) should be multiplied by the variable NUMBABES. These
procedures allowed all aspects of the complex sample design including the weighting process to be
reflected in the estimated standard errors.
description: Response Rates: The response rate among the 60 hospitals originally
sampled was 65 percent (39 hospitals). Of the 21 hospitals that refused
participation, 13 were replaced following specific substitution rules.
Eight hospitals refused participation and were not replaced, for a final
sample of 52 hospitals. Mothers were randomly selected from within the
participating hospitals. Of the 3,386 mothers sampled for the survey,
1 percent (46) were found to be ineligible. These were women who spoke
neither English nor Spanish. Of the 3,340 eligible mothers, 89 percent
(3,007) could be approached (i.e., the hospital allowed them to be
contacted). Of all eligible respondents, 2,613 completed the questionnaire
on substance use. This was 78 percent of the those eligible and 87 percent
of those approached. Mothers' and infants' medical records were abstracted
for 92 percent of the women who completed the substance use questionnaire.
description: A two-staged sampling procedure within strata was used,
with selection of hospitals in the first stage and selection of
mothers within the sampled hospitals in the second stage. The sampling
frame for hospitals included all hospitals in the contiguous United
States with 200 or more births per year. Hospitals were stratified by
(1) metropolitan area hospitals in counties with high concentrations
of Hispanics, (2) other metropolitan hospitals, and (3)
nonmetropolitan hospitals. Hospitals were selected with probability
proportionate to size using the number of births in 1989 as a measure
of size. The final sample consisted of 37 hospital clusters containing
60 individual hospitals.
description: Datasets: 
DS1: National Pregnancy and Health Survey: Drug Use Among Women Delivering Live Births, 1992
description: Women delivering live-born infants in hospitals in the
contiguous 48 states with 200 or more births per year.
description: Data were collected by Westat, Inc.To protect
the anonymity of respondents, all variables that could be used to
identify individuals have been collapsed, recoded, or removed from the
public use file. These modifications should not affect analytic uses
of the public use file.