American journal of preventive medicine
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Despite widespread concern about exposure of infants in utero to cocaine, population-based data regarding the prevalence of such exposures are limited. An official task force in Ohio called for studies to generate such data for that state. During three weeks in late 1990, urine was obtained within 48 hours of birth from 1,819 infants born in 25 Ohio hospitals randomly selected from a pool of hospitals accounting for over 80% of Ohio births. ⋯ Such methods may be especially useful for trend studies and program evaluation. In this study, we found widely distributed prepartal cocaine usage in Ohio. Black newborns were significantly more likely than white newborns to show evidence of recent cocaine exposure.