Current Projects

Queries using the Cohort may be done simultaneously concerning different prescribed drugs and their utilization during pregnancy. Here, we will describe current queries.

Query: Q19-06 - Cough and cold products containing opioids: prescribing and patient utilization patterns in the pediatric population.

Research Question

What are the physician’s prescribing patterns and patients’ use patterns of prescribed cough and cold opioid-containing medicines (CCOMs) in paediatrics?

This proposal will be performed using data from the Canadian Mother-Child Cohort Active Surveillance Initiative (DSEN/CIHR/HC; Bérard et al.). In addition to overall province-specific prevalence and annual prevalence of CCOMs prescribed (physician) and filled (patient) in the pediatric population, prevalence will be calculated stratifying on age categories (infant, toddler, child, teenager, ≤12 yr old (contraindicated according to Canadian guidelines), >12 yrs old), on CCOM’s active ingredient, and on specific CCOM pattern of use.

Query: Q21-03 - COVID-19 infection and medicines in pregnancy.

Background

Although it is estimated that over 100 million pregnant women worldwide may be at risk of infection with SARS-CoV-2, and more than 3,800 pregnant women in Canada have been infected to date1, little data exists on the consequences of COVID-19 infection and related treatments on maternal and neonatal health.

Effects and outcomes have primarily been reported in case series, small cohort studies and meta-analyses2. Most of the available evidence has focused solely on third-trimester exposures to COVID-19 and the use of medicines off-label. This has led to important gaps in information about the impact of COVID-19 infection at different gestational ages and the use of, and guidelines for, treatments across all trimesters and their impacts, including outcomes such as fetal malformations, preterm delivery, pregnancy loss, and low birth weight. Real-world data can fill current knowledge gaps and inform future safety and effectiveness studies and clinical practice guidelines for treating pregnant women infected with COVID-19.

Main objectives
1. To estimate the prevalence of medicines and other treatments used in:
  - in pregnant women with COVID-19;
  - pregnant women without COVID-19;
  - and, non-pregnant women of reproductive age with COVID-19.
2. To describe the severity and clinical outcomes of COVID-19 disease in pregnant women with COVID-19 and in non-pregnant women of reproductive age with COVID-19, overall and stratified by:
  - treatments received during pregnancy (including no treatment) ;
  - the trimester of pregnancy;
  - and, other predictors of clinical outcomes such as underlying health conditions and obesity.
3. To assess rates of adverse pregnancy and neonatal outcomes in different treatment groups of pregnant women for COVID-19 and its clinical sequelae in the first, second and third trimester of pregnancy (including no treatment) compared to those estimated for pregnant women without COVID-19 during the pandemic period.