Overall
By Maternal Age
Drug Use Among Females of Reproductive Age
Any Drug and/or Alcohol Use
Technical Notes
In this context, drug use is defined as street drugs and the inappropriate use of prescription and non-prescription drugs. Alcohol is excluded from this definition. Data on alcohol can be found on the Alcohol Use During Pregnancy page.
Drug use during pregnancy can lead to fetal growth restrictions, such as reduced length, head circumference and birth weight, and medical complications including preterm birth and infections. Infants born to chronic opioid users are frequently born with a dependency to these drugs and experience withdrawal following birth. The resulting effects are known as neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS), which has negative impacts on feeding, elimination and sleeping. Recent Ontario estimates suggest that 0.4% of infants are born with NAS. Dozens of babies are hospitalized with NAS in Simcoe Muskoka every year as explained on the NAS Hospital Admissions page.
Data on this page are from Ontario’s Better Outcomes Registry and Network (BORN), unless otherwise indicated.
Overall
Among Simcoe Muskoka residents who gave birth in 2018, 239 (4.6% (4.0%, 5.2%)) report using one or more drugs during their pregnancy. Among those who used one or more drugs during pregnancy, the most commonly reported is marijuana (79.5%). Cocaine and opioids were also used by 12.5%, and 11.7%, respectively, of those who report drug use during pregnancy.
The percentage of Simcoe Muskoka residents who report drug use during pregnancy is significantly higher than the provincial percentage at 2.6% (2.5%, 2.7%) in 2018.
The percentage of Simcoe Muskoka residents who report drug use during pregnancy significantly increased from 3.0% (2.6%, 3.6%) in 2013 to 4.6% (4.0%, 5.2%) in 2018. The provincial percentage also increased from 1.9% (1.8%, 2.0%) in 2013 to 2.6% (2.5%, 2.7%) in 2018. Drug use during pregnancy is higher in Simcoe Muskoka compared to Ontario across the time period.
By Maternal Age
People aged 15-24 are the most likely to report using drugs during pregnancy at 12.2% (9.7%, 15.1%) in Simcoe Muskoka in 2018. Drug use during pregnancy is significantly less common among people aged 25-34 at 3.9% (3.3%, 4.6%) and people aged 35 or older at 2.6% (1.7%, 3.7%).
Drug Use Among Females of Reproductive Age
According to the 2015/2016 Canadian Community Health Survey (CCHS), 19.0% (11.7%, 29.4%) of reproductive aged (15-49 years) females in Simcoe Muskoka report past year illicit drug use, excluding one-time cannabis use. This is not significantly different from the provincial percentage of 14.5% (13.1%, 16.1%). For more information on specific drug use by sex, age group, income or education, see the section on Drug Use.
Any Drug and/or Alcohol Use
Among Simcoe Muskoka residents who gave birth in 2018, 7.5% (6.8%, 8.3%) report the use of any drugs or alcohol during pregnancy. Compared to the 4.6% of individuals who report drug use, and the 3.6% of individuals who report alcohol use, this suggests that drug use and alcohol use during pregnancy are generally not occurring in overlapping populations. While drug and/or alcohol use remains more common among younger people, these results suggest that there may be different risk factors which affect the drug use and alcohol use during pregnancy.
Technical Notes
Two main data sources are used to gain an understanding of drug use in people of reproductive age and pregnant people. Please see the Data Sources page to learn more about each data source: