Abstract
In order to study the effects of varying levels of alcohol consumption during pregnancy, a group of 1,529 unselected mothers were interviewed during their 5th month of pregnancy as to their use of alcohol. At birth, 82 of the infants born to drinking mothers were examined by a dysmorphologist, along with 81 controls (J Pediatr 92:457, 1978). In the current study, 75 of these infants were re-examined at 4 years, along with 130 children from the same study population. All exams were conducted without knowledge of the mothers' drinking history. Reported alcohol consumption during the month prior to recognition of pregnancy among mothers from the experimental group averaged 2.0 oz. absolute alcohol per day, while controls drank infrequently or never. 20% of the experimental group showed alterations of growth and morphogenesis compatible with some fetal alcohol effect, compared with 9% of controls (p = .027). There was an increasing incidence of recognizable alcohol effects with increasing alcohol consumption (p = .013). Of 11 children judged to show alcohol effects at birth, 10 of these were re-examined at age 4 years, and 8 were independently judged to show fetal alcohol effects; their mean IQ was 92. These data suggest that moderate alcohol consumption during pregnancy may result in specific lasting phenotypic alterations which can permit valid, reliable judgments as to the presence of fetal alcohol effects.
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Graham, J., Darby, B., Barr, H. et al. 1203 LONG-TERM EFFECTS OF MODERATE ALCOHOL CONSUMPTION DURING PREGNANCY. Pediatr Res 15 (Suppl 4), 643 (1981). https://doi.org/10.1203/00006450-198104001-01229
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1203/00006450-198104001-01229
