Infants with neonatal opioid withdrawal syndrome may have an 18% higher risk of being readmitted to the hospital within 90 days of birth compared with those without neonatal opioid withdrawal syndrome, according to a recent study. 

In the study, published in JAMA Network Open, investigators led by Julie R. Gaither, PhD, MPH, RN, from the Yale School of Medicine, analyzed data from over 13.8 million newborns in U.S. hospital discharge records from 2016 to 2020. Among these infants, 0.6% (n = 89,018) of them were diagnosed with neonatal opioid withdrawal syndrome (NOWS).

The investigators found that the 90-day readmission rate was 4.2% among infants with NOWS vs 3.0% among those without NOWS. After adjusting for factors such as sex, low birth weight, gestational age, multiple gestation, type of insurance, and birth year, the infants with NOWS had a higher risk of all-cause readmission (adjusted odds ratio [OR] = 1.18, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.08–1.29). Survey-weighted logistic regression was employed to calculate both unadjusted and ORs for overall and cause-specific readmissions. Specifically, infants with NOWS had an increased risk of readmission for seizures (adjusted OR = 1.58, 95% CI = 1.01–2.46), failure to thrive (adjusted OR = 1.99, 95% CI = 1.36–2.93), traumatic brain injury (adjusted OR = 2.95, 95% CI = 1.76–4.93), and skull fractures (adjusted OR = 3.72, 95% CI = 2.33–5.93). These infants also had a greater risk of being diagnosed with confirmed maltreatment (adjusted OR = 4.26, 95% CI = 2.19–8.27), particularly neglect (adjusted OR = 14.18, 95% CI = 5.55–36.22), although the increased risk for physical abuse was not statistically significant.

The study's findings indicated that infants with NOWS are at increased risk of readmission as a result of trauma and maltreatment. 

Full disclosures can be found in the published study.