Assessing the Impact of Exposure Misclassification in Case-Control Studies of Self-Reported Medication Use.

Background: Empirically evaluating the potential impact of recall bias on observed associations of prenatal medication exposure is crucial.

Objective: We sought to assess the effects of exposure misclassification on previous studies of the use of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) in early pregnancy and increased risk of amniotic band syndrome (ABS).

Methods: Using data from the National Birth Defects Prevention Study (NBDPS) on births from 1997 to 2011, we included 189 mothers of infants with ABS and 11,829 mothers of infants without congenital anomalies.

An exploration of potential risk factors for gastroschisis using decision tree learning.

Purpose: Despite a wealth of research, the etiology of the abdominal wall defect gastroschisis remains largely unknown. The strongest known risk factor is young maternal age. Our objective was to conduct a hypothesis-generating analysis regarding gastroschisis etiology using random forests.

Neurobehavioral outcomes of infants exposed to buprenorphine-naloxone compared with naltrexone during pregnancy.

Background: Naltrexone is a medication used to treat both opioid and alcohol use disorder with limited experience in pregnant individuals, particularly in comparison to more commonly utilized treatments such as buprenorphine-naloxone. The long-term outcomes of infants exposed to naltrexone has not been previously examined.

Aims: To compare the neurobehavioral outcomes of naltrexone versus buprenorphine-naloxone exposed infants.

Real-world data are not always big data: the case for primary data collection on medication use in pregnancy in the context of birth defects research.

Many examples of the use of real-world data in the area of pharmacoepidemiology include "big data," such as insurance claims, medical records, or hospital discharge databases. However, "big" is not always better, particularly when studying outcomes with narrow windows of etiologic relevance. Birth defects are such an outcome, for which specificity of exposure timing is critical.