A study released Tuesday shows higher than average rates of opioid use among Butler County women visiting hospitals to give birth.

The Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Council, a state agency, released a study on substance use by pregnant women in Pennsylvania. Its data links opioid use to birth complications, and it shows that such problems are disproportionately affecting women in poorer parts of the state and where fewer people have college degrees.

About 20 patients out of every 1,000 staying in hospitals for maternal care statewide in 2016 and 2017 used opioids, the study found. About twice that number used some sort of substance, although opioids were the most common.

The study looked at use of opioids, cannabis, cocaine, alcohol, methamphetamines and heroin, according to Joe Martin, PHC4's executive director.

During the same time in Butler County, about 29 patients out of every 1,000 used opioids.

“These findings continue to stress how important it is to focus attention on the opioid crisis,” Martin said in a news release. “The impact on new mothers and new babies, as previous PHC4 findings have shown, is alarming.”

The study used data on any visits to hospitals for maternity care, including visits that didn't involve delivering a child. However, 91 percent of maternal care visits to hospitals in the time frame involved delivery, according to Martin.

Of the surrounding counties, Venango, Mercer, Lawrence and Armstrong counties all had higher rates of opioid use among the maternal patients. Allegheny, Beaver and Clarion counties had lower rates.

Opioid rates more than double in places where less than 10 percent of people have bachelor's degrees as compared to places where 40 percent or more do. In Butler County, 34.6 percent of people have degrees, according to U.S. Census data.

Similarly, opioid use rates almost double where 40 percent or more of the population lives in poverty, compared to places where less than 10 percent live in poverty. In Butler County, 8.4 percent live below the poverty level.

In specific areas of Butler County, education and poverty rates worsen. Butler itself, for instance, has about 30 percent of residents below poverty levels and just 18 percent have bachelor's degrees, according to U.S. Census data.

The PHC4 found that 82 percent of the state's patients who were using opioids used Medicaid for their health coverage.

The use of opioids by pregnant women has increased year over year, the study found. In 2000, the study's first year examined, just three percent of maternal patients were using the drugs.

The study showed that opioid use appears to increase the likelihood of a baby being born premature. In studied cases without opioid use, it shows, 9.4 percent of deliveries were premature. In cases with opioid use, that figure jumped to 19.2 percent.

Early-term deliveries also increased by about 5 percent.

Using opioids also appeared to be correlated with requiring readmission to a hospital. Of those using the drugs, 11.7 percent were readmitted within a year. Mothers not using the drug needed readmission just 4.6 percent of the time.