TY - JOUR
T1 - Alcohol consumption by women before and during pregnancy
AU - Ethen, Mary K.
AU - Ramadhani, Tunu A.
AU - Scheuerle, Angela E.
AU - Canfield, Mark A.
AU - Wyszynski, Diego F.
AU - Druschel, Charlotte M.
AU - Romitti, Paul A.
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors thank the participating families and the many staff and scientists from all sites who contribute to the National Birth Defects Prevention Study. This research was funded in part by Cooperative Agreement number U50/CCU613232 from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
PY - 2009
Y1 - 2009
N2 - Objectives: To determine the prevalence, patterns, and predictors of alcohol consumption prior to and during various intervals of pregnancy in the U.S. Methods: Alcohol-related, pregnancy-related, and demographic data were derived from computer-assisted telephone interviews with 4,088 randomly selected control mothers from the National Birth Defects Prevention Study who delivered live born infants without birth defects during 1997-2002. Alcohol consumption rates and crude and adjusted odds ratios (OR) were calculated. Results: 30.3% of all women reported drinking alcohol at some time during pregnancy, of which 8.3% reported binge drinking (4+ drinks on one occasion). Drinking rates declined considerably after the first month of pregnancy, during which 22.5% of women reported drinking, although 2.7% of women reported drinking during all trimesters of pregnancy and 7.9% reported drinking during the 3rd trimester. Pre-pregnancy binge drinking was a strong predictor of both drinking during pregnancy (adjusted OR = 8.52, 95% CI = 6.67-10.88) and binge drinking during pregnancy (adjusted OR = 36.02, 95% CI = 24.63-52.69). Other characteristics associated with both any drinking and binge drinking during pregnancy were non-Hispanic white race/ethnicity, cigarette smoking during pregnancy, and having an unintended pregnancy. Conclusions: Our study revealed that drinking during pregnancy is fairly common, three times the levels reported in surveys that ask only about drinking during the month before the survey. Women who binge drink before pregnancy are at particular risk for drinking after becoming pregnant. Sexually active women of childbearing ages who drink alcohol should be advised to use reliable methods to prevent pregnancy, plan their pregnancies, and stop drinking before becoming pregnant.
AB - Objectives: To determine the prevalence, patterns, and predictors of alcohol consumption prior to and during various intervals of pregnancy in the U.S. Methods: Alcohol-related, pregnancy-related, and demographic data were derived from computer-assisted telephone interviews with 4,088 randomly selected control mothers from the National Birth Defects Prevention Study who delivered live born infants without birth defects during 1997-2002. Alcohol consumption rates and crude and adjusted odds ratios (OR) were calculated. Results: 30.3% of all women reported drinking alcohol at some time during pregnancy, of which 8.3% reported binge drinking (4+ drinks on one occasion). Drinking rates declined considerably after the first month of pregnancy, during which 22.5% of women reported drinking, although 2.7% of women reported drinking during all trimesters of pregnancy and 7.9% reported drinking during the 3rd trimester. Pre-pregnancy binge drinking was a strong predictor of both drinking during pregnancy (adjusted OR = 8.52, 95% CI = 6.67-10.88) and binge drinking during pregnancy (adjusted OR = 36.02, 95% CI = 24.63-52.69). Other characteristics associated with both any drinking and binge drinking during pregnancy were non-Hispanic white race/ethnicity, cigarette smoking during pregnancy, and having an unintended pregnancy. Conclusions: Our study revealed that drinking during pregnancy is fairly common, three times the levels reported in surveys that ask only about drinking during the month before the survey. Women who binge drink before pregnancy are at particular risk for drinking after becoming pregnant. Sexually active women of childbearing ages who drink alcohol should be advised to use reliable methods to prevent pregnancy, plan their pregnancies, and stop drinking before becoming pregnant.
KW - Alcohol drinking
KW - Pregnant women
KW - Prevalence
KW - Women
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=59849102057&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=59849102057&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/s10995-008-0328-2
DO - 10.1007/s10995-008-0328-2
M3 - Article
C2 - 18317893
AN - SCOPUS:59849102057
SN - 1092-7875
VL - 13
SP - 274
EP - 285
JO - Maternal and child health journal
JF - Maternal and child health journal
IS - 2
ER -