The Impact of the Alcohol Warning Label on Drinking during Pregnancy

Abstract

Has drinking by pregnant women decreased since the implementation of the alcoholic beverage warning label? The authors examined the reported drinking of 4397 pregnant black women who sought prenatal care in an inner city clinic of Detroit, MI. They found that the warning label had a differential effect on risk drinkers (women consuming at least .5 ounce of absolute alcohol per day at conception) and lighter drinkers/abstainers (women consuming less than .5 ounce of absolute alcohol per day at conception). Six months after the warning label law was implemented (June 1, 1990), lighter drinkers decreased their drinking during pregnancy by a small but statistically significant amount. In contrast, pregnant risk drinkers did not significantly change their alcohol consumption.

Optimal content for warning messages to enhance consumer decision making and reduce problem gambling

“…This is likely due to cognitive biases that enable gamblers to understand the low probabilities of winning, yet to believe that they may still have a chance to win (Williams & Connolly, 2006). This is consistent with research on the impact of warnings for alcohol and tobacco products that demonstrate these messages generally increases consumer awareness of the potential negative consequences, but have a very limited impact on actual risky behaviours (Fischer, Krugman, Fletcher, Fox, & Rojas, 1993;Hankin et al, 1993;Ringold, 2002;Stockley, 2001). Due to the limited success of educational messages on modifying compulsive and problematic consumption of potentially harmful products, further research is required to evaluate more effectual wording for warning messages.…”

Warnings on alcohol containers and advertisements: International experience and evidence on effects

“…By 1994 awareness of the label increased to 43% of the US respondents (excluding lifetime abstainers), compared with 30% in 1990. In all survey years awareness was greater among young people (61% of [18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29] year olds in 1994) and heavy drinkers (74% in 1994) than for the general US population [25]. The highest recall of the health warning message in the US 1994 survey was for the 'birth defects' message (80% of respondents who had seen the warnings were able to recall its message), followed by 59% for the operating heavy machinery and 47% recall of the drink driving message [25].…”

“…Although the study found an increase in adolescent's awareness of the labels, there was no affect on alcohol-related behaviours. The second study evaluated the impacts on perceived risks and drinking behaviour of the messages on 4397 women who were black, pregnant and consecutive attendees at an antenatal clinic in Detroit [27]. This study found a significant increase in awareness and recall of the message.…”

An exploratory study of drinkers views of health information and warning labels on alcohol containers

“…Evaluations of this measure have found some effects on knowledge and attitudes, but little effect on drinking behaviours [3][4][5]. These evaluations, largely undertaken in the USA, are a limited test of the utility of labels.…”