U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion

Increase abstinence from illicit drugs among pregnant women — MICH‑11 Data Methodology and Measurement

On this page:  About the National Data  |  Methodology  |  History

About the National Data

Data

Data Source:  National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), SAMHSA

Baseline: 93.0 percent of pregnant females aged 15 to 44 years reported abstaining from illicit drugs in the past 30 days in 2017-18

Target: 95.3 percent

Numerator
Number of pregnant females aged 15 to 44 years reporting not using any illicit drugs in the past 30 days.
Denominator
Number of pregnant females aged 15 to 44 years.
Target-setting method
Percentage point improvement
Target-setting method details
Percentage point improvement from the baseline using Cohen's h effect size of 0.10.
Target-setting method justification
Trend data were evaluated for this objective, but it was not possible to project a target because the trend line was moving away from the desired direction. A percentage point improvement was calculated using Cohen's h effect size of 0.1. This method was used because it was a statistically significant improvement from the baseline.

Methodology

Questions used to obtain the national baseline data

(For additional information, please visit the data source page linked above.)

From the 2017 National Survey on Drug Use and Health:

Numerator:

[The following question is asked separately for each illicit drug: marijuana or hashish, cocaine, "crack," heroin, hallucinogens, and inhalants:]

How long has it been since you last used [marijuana or hashish, cocaine, "crack," heroin, hallucinogens, inhalants]?
  • Marijuana or Hashish______
  • Cocaine______
  • Heroin______
  • Hallucinogens______
  • Inhalants______

[The following questions are asked separately for nonmedical use of analgesics (prescription pain killers), tranquilizers, stimulants, and sedatives:]

How long has it been since you last used (a pain killer, tranquilizers, stimulants, sedatives) that was not prescribed for you, or that you took only for the experience or feeling it caused?
  • Pain killer______
  • Tranquilizers______
  • Stimulants______
  • Sedatives ______
Are you currently pregnant?
  1. Yes
  2. No

[If Yes:]

How many months pregnant are you? Number of months pregnant __

Methodology notes

Illicit drugs are defined as marijuana or hashish, cocaine (including crack), inhalants, hallucinogens (including PCP and LSD), heroin, and nonmedical use of psychotherapeutics. To ensure adequate precision of estimates for pregnant women, estimates are based on combined data from two years.

History

Comparable HP2020 objective
Retained, which includes core objectives that are continuing from Healthy People 2020 with no change in measurement.