Notice to Readers
Alcohol and Other Drug-Related Birth Defects Awareness Week --
May 9-15, 1999
The National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence (NCADD)
has
designated May 9-15, 1999, as Alcohol and Other Drug-Related Birth
Defects
Awareness Week. This year's focus on early identification of women
with
drinking problems parallels CDC's research activities targeting
nonpregnant
women of childbearing age who are at risk for having an
alcohol-exposed
pregnancy (Project CHOICES {Changing High-risk Alcohol Use and
Increasing
Contraception Effectiveness Study}).
Fertile women who drink alcohol frequently and have
unprotected sex
are at risk for having an alcohol-exposed pregnancy. As many as one
in
eight women of childbearing age engage in frequent drinking (five
or more
drinks on at least one occasion in the previous month or an average
of
seven or more drinks per week) (1). Half of all pregnancies in the
United
States are unplanned (2), and many women do not know they are
pregnant
until well into their first trimester (3). Any woman with an
unplanned
pregnancy could expose her unborn child to alcohol before she knows
she is
pregnant. Alcohol use during pregnancy can have harmful effects on
the
fetus, including spontaneous abortion, birth defects,
neurodevelopmental
disorders, and fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) (the most common known
nongenetic cause of mental retardation) (4).
The incidence of alcohol-exposed pregnancies can be reduced if
women
at risk reduce their alcohol consumption or postpone pregnancy
until their
problem drinking is resolved. Screening instruments (5,6) can be
used to
identify women who are problem drinkers, and brief interventions,
consisting of counseling and advice, can be given to those for whom
problems are identified.
Additional information about Alcohol and Other Drug-Related
Birth
Defects Awareness Week is available from the NCADD World-Wide Web
site,
*, or telephone (212) 206-6770. Information
about
FAS and other alcohol-related birth defects and developmental
disabilities
is available from CDC,
, or
telephone (770) 488-7268.
References
CDC. Alcohol consumption among pregnant and childbearing-aged
women --
United States, 1991-1995. MMWR 1997;46:346-50.
Henshaw SK. Unintended pregnancy in the United States. Fam
Plann
Perspect 1998;30:24-9.
Floyd RL, Decoufle P, Hungerford DW. Alcohol use prior to
pregnancy
recognition. Am J Prev Med 1999(in press).
Institute of Medicine. Fetal alcohol syndrome: diagnosis,
epidemiology,
prevention, and treatment. Washington, DC: National Academy
Press,
1996.
Bohn MJ, Babor TF, Kranzler HR. The Alcohol Use Disorders
Identification Test (AUDIT): validation of a screening
instrument for
use in medical settings. J Stud Alcohol 1995;56:423-32.
Russell M. New assessment tools for risk drinking during
pregnancy:
T-ACE, TWEAK, and others. Alcohol Health Res World
1994;18:55-61.
References to sites of nonfederal organizations on the World-Wide
Web are
provided solely as a service to MMWR readers and do not constitute
or imply
endorsement of these organizations or their programs by CDC or the
U.S.
Department of Health and Human Services. CDC is not responsible for
the
content of pages found at these sites.
Disclaimer
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