A national movement or just a ripple? Few outpatient perinatal visits engage in essential perinatal behavioral health screening practices

Objectives

Perinatal behavioral health conditions are currently the leading cause of US maternal mortality. To prevent morbidity and mortality, obstetrics clinicians must screen for behavioral health conditions using a validated screener. However, many women's behavioral health conditions go undetected and untreated. This brief highlights the extent of the US health system's failure to adequately screen for critical perinatal health conditions.

Methods

Pooled data from the 2015–16, and 2018–19 National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey were generated to assess rates of screening for depression, alcohol use, substance use, and domestic violence during routine prenatal care visits.

Results

In the pooled 2015–2016 and 2018–2019 NAMCS sample (n = 1135) there were 82,986,275 weighted office visits for routine prenatal care. Clinicians most frequently identified as physicians. Screening data was nearly absent from the data, with domestic violence screenings being conducted most frequently at a reported 2.7 %.

Conclusions

This study found behavioral health screening tools are used infrequently during office visits for routine prenatal care. While many clinicians endorse at least some behavioral health screening practices, the adoption of these screenings in all healthcare settings has not occurred.