Retrieved from https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/features/alcohol-use-disorder-among-reproductive-age-women-and-barriers-to-treatment/
June 4, 2024—Anna Shchetinina, a PhD candidate in Population Health Sciences at the Harvard Griffin Graduate School of Arts and Sciences and Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, has long been interested in alcohol use among women as a public health issue. Noticing the gap in research on recent trends in alcohol misuse and treatment among U.S. women, she decided to conduct such a study. Below, she discusses her findings, which were published in PLOS One this spring.
Q: What questions were you hoping to answer about women’s alcohol use—and what did you find?
A: We wanted to understand current trends in drinking among reproductive-age women in the U.S., with a particular interest in parenting and pregnant women. We also wanted to understand the unmet need for alcohol use disorder (AUD) treatment, and what barriers to treatment exist. Using 2015-2021 data from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, we compiled a pool of more than 120,000 women, ages 18-49, who provided information about their drinking habits and, if treatment was desired or recommended, whether they received it. Those who did not receive treatment—which we defined as care or counseling for alcohol use in various contexts including hospitals, rehabilitation facilities, mental health centers, private physicians’ offices, substance abuse-related emergency rooms, or self-help groups—shared what prevented them from doing so. Half of our study population had at least one child but were not pregnant during the study period; 3% were pregnant during the study period, with or without at least one child already; and the remainder were neither pregnant nor parenting.
We found that among women who were neither pregnant nor parenting, nearly 13% had drinking habits that met the American Psychiatric Association’s criteria for AUD, but only 4% received treatment. The prevalence of AUD was lower among the parenting group (6.6%) and the pregnant group (6.3%), but a treatment gap still existed, with only 5% of each group receiving treatment.
Financial barriers—including costs and lack of insurance coverage—were the most frequently cited reason for not receiving treatment across our entire study population. Treatment not being a priority—including women’s belief they could handle their alcohol use on their own or didn’t have time, desire, or faith in treatment—was the next most common reason. Access barriers—including lack of transportation, treatment options being unavailable or programs being too full, or lack of knowledge of where to seek treatment—and stigma were next most common. Access barriers and stigma were more frequently cited by pregnant and parenting women.