The Czech Republic Annual Report 2010 Drug ... - Drogy-info.cz

Figure 12-2: All drug users in treatment living alone with children, according to gender and proportions in the total
number of clients, Czech Republic, 2002–2010 (Studničková and Petrášová, 2011)
As regards the drug of choice, stimulants, followed by opiates, prevail among drug users with children demanding
treatment; see Figure 12-3. Approximately 70% of them are injecting drug users (Studničková and Petrášová, 2011).
Figure 12-3: Drug users in treatment living with children, according to drug of choice, Czech Republic, 2010 (Studničková
and Petrášová, 2011)
The extent and impact of the problem of substance use in relation to parenting in the Czech Republic may also be
derived from the data available from the National Register of Mothers at Childbirth and the National Register of
Newborns administered by the Czech Institute of Health Information and Statistics. These registers provide
information about the parturient mother, her pregnancy, the delivery, and the child, obtained during the woman’s stay
in hospital in relation to the delivery or postnatal period. Since 2000 the register of mothers at childbirth has also
collected information about addictive substances used by expectant mothers during pregnancy. The use of tobacco
(indicated if a woman smoked five or more cigarettes daily at any time during her pregnancy or less than five
cigarettes on repeated occasions), alcohol (repeated consumption of spirits or regular use of beer or wine), and other
drugs (any, even isolated, cases of drug use during pregnancy) are recorded.
The structure of women recorded as using addictive substances at the time of their giving birth and their average age
is indicated in Table 12-2 and Figure 12-4 (Ústav zdravotnických informací a statistiky, 2011d). The average age of
the drug users (less than 26) was lower by an average of 3.5 years in comparison to the average age of other
mothers at childbirth. This may suggest that the number of women using addictive substances, especially alcohol
and other (illegal) drugs, is underestimated in the register. Nevertheless, the proportions of parturient mothers using
addictive substances, particularly those other than alcohol, recorded with respect to the region of their domicile
correspond to the statistical data on drug users in general. The largest numbers of these mothers are found in the
Ústí nad Labem region (26% of the total number of mothers giving birth using other drugs), in Prague, and in the
Central Bohemia region (almost a quarter on aggregate); see Figure 12-5. The women who used drugs during
pregnancy were more likely to be single (62% and 41% of users of illicit drugs and alcohol respectively) and their
level of education was generally lower; women with elementary education accounted for the largest group (50% and
almost 37% of users of illicit drugs and alcohol respectively); see Figure 12-6.
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