A harmonized analysis of five Canadian pregnancy cohort studies: exploring the characteristics and pregnancy outcomes associated with prenatal alcohol exposure

Rose A Schmidt^{1

2}, Tina W Wey³, Kelly D Harding^{4

5}, Isabel Fortier⁶, Stephanie Atkinson⁷, Suzanne Tough^{8

9}, Nicole Letourneau⁸, Julia A Knight^{1

10}, William D Fraser¹¹, Alan Bocking¹²

Affiliations

¹ Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada.
² Institute for Mental Health Policy Research, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH), Toronto, ON, Canada.
³ Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre, Montreal, QC, Canada. twey@maelstrom-research.org.
⁴ Canada Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder Research Network, Vancouver, BC, Canada.
⁵ Department of Psychology, Laurentian University, Sudbury, ON, Canada.
⁶ Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre, Montreal, QC, Canada.
⁷ Department of Pediatrics, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada.
⁸ Owerko Centre at the Alberta Children's Hospital Research Institute, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada.
⁹ Cumming School of Medecine, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada.
¹⁰ Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute, Sinai Health, Toronto, ON, Canada.
¹¹ Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Sherbrooke, Sherbrooke, QC, Canada.
¹² Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada.

PMID: 36855094
PMCID: PMC9972615
DOI: 10.1186/s12884-023-05447-2

A harmonized analysis of five Canadian pregnancy cohort studies: exploring the characteristics and pregnancy outcomes associated with prenatal alcohol exposure

Rose A Schmidt et al. BMC Pregnancy Childbirth. 2023.

. 2023 Feb 28;23(1):128.

doi: 10.1186/s12884-023-05447-2.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada.
² Institute for Mental Health Policy Research, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH), Toronto, ON, Canada.
³ Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre, Montreal, QC, Canada. twey@maelstrom-research.org.
⁴ Canada Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder Research Network, Vancouver, BC, Canada.
⁵ Department of Psychology, Laurentian University, Sudbury, ON, Canada.
⁶ Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre, Montreal, QC, Canada.
⁷ Department of Pediatrics, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada.
⁸ Owerko Centre at the Alberta Children's Hospital Research Institute, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada.
⁹ Cumming School of Medecine, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada.
¹⁰ Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute, Sinai Health, Toronto, ON, Canada.
¹¹ Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Sherbrooke, Sherbrooke, QC, Canada.
¹² Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada.

PMID: 36855094
PMCID: PMC9972615
DOI: 10.1186/s12884-023-05447-2

Abstract

Background: As a teratogen, alcohol exposure during pregnancy can impact fetal development and result in adverse birth outcomes. Despite the clinical and social importance of prenatal alcohol use, limited routinely collected information or epidemiological data exists in Canada. The aim of this study was to pool data from multiple Canadian cohort studies to identify sociodemographic characteristics before and during pregnancy that were associated with alcohol consumption during pregnancy and to assess the impact of different patterns of alcohol use on birth outcomes.

Methods: We harmonized information collected (e.g., pregnant women's alcohol intake, infants' gestational age and birth weight) from five Canadian pregnancy cohort studies to consolidate a large sample (n = 11,448). Risk factors for any alcohol use during pregnancy, including any alcohol use prior to pregnancy recognition, and binge drinking, were estimated using binomial regressions including fixed effects of pregnancy cohort membership and multiple maternal risk factors. Impacts of alcohol use during pregnancy on birth outcomes (preterm birth and low birth weight for gestational) were also estimated using binomial regression models.

Results: In analyses adjusting for multiple risk factors, women's alcohol use during pregnancy, both any use and any binge drinking, was associated with drinking prior to pregnancy, smoking during pregnancy, and white ethnicity. Higher income level was associated with any drinking during pregnancy. Neither drinking during pregnancy nor binge drinking during pregnancy was significantly associated with preterm delivery or low birth weight for gestational age in our sample.

Conclusions: Pooling data across pregnancy cohort studies allowed us to create a large sample of Canadian women and investigate the risk factors for alcohol consumption during pregnancy. We suggest that future pregnancy and birth cohorts should always include questions related to the frequency and amount of alcohol consumed before and during pregnancy that are prospectively harmonized to support data reusability and collaborative research.

Keywords: Alcohol; Birth outcomes; Data harmonization; Pregnancy; Prenatal alcohol exposure.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no competing interests.

References

1. Varin M, Palladino E, Hill MacEachern K, Belzak L, Baker MM. Prevalence of alcohol use among women of reproductive age in Canada. Health Promot Chronic Dis Prev Can. 2021;41(9):267–71. doi: 10.24095/hpcdp.41.9.04. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
1. Sundermann AC, Zhao S, Young CL, Lam L, Jones SH, Velez Edwards DR, et al. Alcohol use in pregnancy and miscarriage: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Alcohol Clin Exp Res. 2019;43(8):1606–16. doi: 10.1111/acer.14124. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
1. Martínez-Galiano JM, Amezcua-Prieto C, Salcedo-Bellido I, Olmedo-Requena R, Bueno-Cavanillas A, Delgado-Rodriguez M. Alcohol consumption during pregnancy and risk of small-for-gestational-age newborn. Women Birth. 2019;32(3):284–288. doi: 10.1016/j.wombi.2018.07.024. - DOI - PubMed
1. Landgren M. How much is too much? The implications of recognising alcohol as a teratogen. Acta Paediatr. 2017;106(3):353–355. doi: 10.1111/apa.13696. - DOI - PubMed
1. Mamluk L, Jones T, Ijaz S, Edwards HB, Savović J, Leach V, et al. Evidence of detrimental effects of prenatal alcohol exposure on offspring birthweight and neurodevelopment from a systematic review of quasi-experimental studies. Int J Epidemiol. 2020;49(6):1972–1995. doi: 10.1093/ije/dyz272. - DOI - PMC - PubMed

MeSH terms

Actions
Actions
Actions
Actions
Actions
Actions
Actions
Actions
Actions
Actions
Actions
Actions
Actions

Save citation to file

Email citation

Add to Collections

Add to My Bibliography

Your saved search

Create a file for external citation management software

Your RSS Feed

A harmonized analysis of five Canadian pregnancy cohort studies: exploring the characteristics and pregnancy outcomes associated with prenatal alcohol exposure

Affiliations

A harmonized analysis of five Canadian pregnancy cohort studies: exploring the characteristics and pregnancy outcomes associated with prenatal alcohol exposure

Authors

Affiliations

Abstract

Conflict of interest statement

References

MeSH terms

Substances

Grants and funding

LinkOut - more resources

Full Text Sources