Geographic and Socioeconomic Variation in Prenatal Opioid Agonist Therapy Access in Saskatchewan

Opioid Agonist Therapies (OAT), such as methadone and buprenorphine, are recommended during pregnancy for the treatment of opioid use disorder. The use of OAT in pregnancy has demonstrated increased access to prenatal care, increased birth weight and gestational age, and decreased rates of child apprehension by social services. This project aims to examine the ability of prenatal people to access OAT in pregnancy throughout Saskatchewan, as well as, how factors such as income disparity and number of OAT providers and healthcare facilities within an individual’s Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA) health network can contribute to OAT accessibility. The project is part of the larger Canadian Perinatal Opioid Surveillance Project and utilized HRDP-SK datasets using SAS. Postal code data points and a spatial overlay were then used to create an access heat map using ArcGIS Pro to better understand OAT prescribing and prenatal opioid use disorder based on SHA health network. The results of the study have yielded many emerging questions surrounding remote barriers, access to addictions care, and suggestions for education and policy changes related to OAT access and prescribing within the province.