Complex patterns of concomitant medication use: A study among Norwegian women using paracetamol during pregnancy.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Studies on medication safety in pregnancy often rely on an oversimplification of medication use into exposed or non-exposed, without considering intensity and timing of use in pregnancy, or concomitant medication use. This study uses paracetamol in pregnancy as the motivating example to introduce a method of clustering medication exposures longitudinally throughout pregnancy. The aim of this study was to use hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA) to better identify clusters of medication exposure throughout pregnancy.

Methods

Data from the Norwegian Mother and Child Cohort Study was used to identify subclasses of women using paracetamol during pregnancy. HCA with customized distance measure was used to identify clusters of medication exposures in pregnancy among chil

SUBMITTER: Salvatore S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5746239 | biostudies-literature | 2017

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature