FAS/FAE: Focusing Prevention on Women at Risk

Abstract

Consumption of alcohol during pregnancy is well recognized as a risk factor associated with adverse fetal development. While precise safe or dangerous levels of maternal drinking have not been identified, it is clear that the women who drink most heavily are at the greatest risk. Prevention of alcohol-related birth defects requires development of programs directed to the special needs of addicted women and their families. The nature of addiction suggests that direct interventions focused on changing individual drinking behavior have the best chance of success.

Field Trial of Alcohol-Server Training for Prevention of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome

“…It is important to initiate public health interventions in selected environments (Hankin et al, 1996) and in the substrata of society in which high-risk women are found, because universal strategies have minimal to no impact on those who drink most heavily during pregnancy (Armstrong et al, 2009;Hankin et al, 1996;Jacobson et al, 1996;Randall, 2001;Riley et al, 2003;Smith et al, 1987;Weiner et al, 1989). One of the universal approaches that has shown a modest impact is the alcoholic beverage warning label.…”

Dialogic voices in talk about drinking and pregnancy

“…One universal prevention strategy has been the use of alcoholic beverage labels that warn pregnant women about the risks of birth defects; however, this strategy appears ineffective with women who are drinkers (e.g., Hankin, 1994;Hankin, Firestone, Sloan, Ager, Sokol, & Martier, 1996). Similar limitations have been noted for such public education efforts as signs on buses or billboards (e.g., Fitzgerald, 1988;Weiner, Morse, & Garrido, 1989). Since the early 1990s, community-based universal efforts have not emphasized FAS prevention directly (NIAAA, 2000a).…”

Fetal Alcohol Syndrome: Implications for Health Education

“…In terms of predisposing, reinforcing, and enabling factors it might appear that the individual is using alcohol in ways that are socially acceptable and perhaps personally rewarding, and yet nonaddictive. It has therefore been suggested that broad-based, mass media type campaigns may be effective in bringing about the desired behavior change for this group of women (Weiner, Morse, & Garrido, 1989). There seems to be significant room for improvement, however, in the area of public education/public awareness.…”