The effects of low to moderate alcohol consumption and binge drinking in early pregnancy on executive function in 5-year-old children

Please cite this paper as: Skogerbo angstrom, Kesmodel U, Wimberley T, Stovring H, Bertrand J, Landro N, Mortensen E. The effects of low to moderate alcohol consumption and binge drinking in early pregnancy on executive function in 5-year-old children. BJOG 2012;119:12011210. Objective To examine the effects of low to moderate maternal alcohol consumption and binge drinking in early pregnancy on childrens executive functions at the age of 5 years. Design Follow-up study. Setting Neuropsychological testing in four Danish cities 20032008. Population A cohort of 1628 women and their children sampled from the Danish National Birth Cohort. Methods Participants were sampled based on maternal alcohol drinking patterns during early pregnancy. When the children were 5 years old, the parent and teacher forms of the Behaviour Rating Inventory of Executive Function (BRIEF) were completed by the mothers and a preschool teacher. Parental education, maternal IQ, prenatal maternal smoking, the childs age at testing, and the childs gender were considered core confounding factors. The full model also included maternal binge drinking or low to moderate alcohol consumption, maternal age, parity, maternal marital status, family home environment, postnatal parental smoking, pre-pregnancy maternal body mass index (BMI), and the health status of the child. Main outcome measures The BRIEF parent and teacher forms. Results Adjusted for all potential confounding factors, no statistically significant associations between maternal low to moderate average weekly consumption and BRIEF index scores were observed. In adjusted analyses, binge drinking in gestational week 9 or later was significantly associated with elevated Behavioural Regulation Index parent scores (OR 2.04, 95% CI 0.333.76), and with the risk of high scores on the Metacognitive Index assessed by the teacher (OR 2.06, 95% CI 1.014.23). Conclusions This study did not observe significant effects of low to moderate alcohol consumption during pregnancy on executive functioning at the age of 5 years. Furthermore, only weak and no consistent associations between maternal binge drinking and executive functions were observed.