Alcohol drinking in pregnant women from an Argentinian city

LICHTENBERGER, ALDANA; BISCARRA, MARÍA AYELÉN; PELTZER, RAQUEL I.; CREMONTE, MARIANA; CONDE, KARINA; GONZÁLEZ, SANTIAGO

Health and Addictions

Universidad Miguel Hernández

Año: 2020 vol. 20 p. 87 - 94

1578-5319

Introduction: alcohol drinking during pregnancy might lead to detrimental consequences to the mother and fetus, being Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS) the most severe. In many Latin-American countries, there is a paucity of information about prenatal exposure to alcohol. Aim: to estimate alcohol drinking in pregnant women and describe it concerning sociodemographic characteristics. Methodology: Data were collected from a random sample of women attending the public health care system (N= 852) in 2016. Alcohol drinking, including binge drinking (BD), was evaluated before and after pregnancy recognition. Descriptive and bivariate analyses were performed. Results: while pregnant, two out of ten women reported drinking. Moreover, 2% engaged in BD and 3% presented indicators of alcohol dependence. BD before pregnancy was related to drinking during pregnancy and frequency, quantity, and BD before pregnancy with BD during pregnancy. Conclusions: Alcohol consumption in pregnant women was higher than the estimated for most Latin-American countries, and of the considered characteristics, was almost exclusively related to consumption patterns before pregnancy.