Evaluation of substance use outcomes in demonstration projects for pregnant and postpartum women and their infants: Findings from a quasi-experiment

We evaluated the impact of nine community-based drug prevention, education, and treatment projects for pregnant and postpartum women using a quasi-exp erimental design. Projects provided case management and referral to service s or provided day treatment. Self-reported measures of six substances were collected (a) from intake to delivery and (b) delivery to 6 months postpart um. We hypothesized that women who received project services (n = 370) betw een intake and follow-ups would be more likely to deter or reduce substance use than women who received an alternative or no intervention (n = 288). D ata showed that project clients had significantly lower 30-day use rates on four of the measures-alcohol, any illicit drug(s), marijuana, and crack-fr om intake to delivery, with preintervention alcohol and other drugs use con trolled. However, none of these results was maintained from intake through 6 months postpartum. Findings are discussed in terms of the difficulty of d etecting and documenting promising intervention program effects over time i n this population. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd.