LOW WEIGHT OF ALCOHOLICS' OFFSPRING PERSISTS INTO TEENS

The research, which assesses size differences in 14-year-old children exposed to alcohol before birth, finds that the more mothers drank, the smaller their children are, says lead author Nancy L. Day, M.P.H., Ph.D., of Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic. Day's study appears in the October issue of Alcoholism: Experimental and Clinical Research.

"The growth deficits have a dose-response relation to gestational exposure, and effects on growth are detectable at exposures that are considerably below one drink per day," Day says. "For example, first trimester alcohol exposure predicted weights of 152, 149, 143 and 136 pounds for offspring of abstainers, light, moderate and heavy drinkers, respectively."

The study included 580 mothers and their children who were assessed during pregnancy, after delivery and again when the children were 14 years old. None of the children met criteria for fetal alcohol syndrome, a disorder caused by toxic exposure to alcohol in the womb.

The women initially selected for the study were healthy, poor and 18 years of age or older. One-quarter of the mothers had one or more drinks a day and another quarter drank no alcohol. The rest drank but not daily.

"The women in our cohort were light-to-moderate drinkers, but their environments were stressful, and they and their children have high rates of medical, economic, psychiatric, social and legal problems," the researchers say. "It may be that these additional stressors made the growth deficits more apparent among these exposed children. Alternatively, the less privileged environment may decrease children's ability for catch-up growth given the teratogenic insult."

The researchers found that a pattern of continuous alcohol use, in contrast to episodic, heavy drinking, was more important in determining whether alcohol use was associated with smaller offspring size. Alcohol use early in pregnancy, during the first trimester specifically, was also an important determining factor for later offspring growth.

They note that because the mothers who participated in this study were almost all poor and of average education, it is unlikely that these results can be readily generalized to more privileged populations.

"Growth deficits related to prenatal alcohol exposure are still detectable at 14 years of age in this cohort. The adolescents are significantly smaller in weight, height, head circumference and skinfold thickness," Day says. "These differences, although generally small, have been consistently noted in this cohort at each assessment."

The study was funded by grants from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, the National Institute on Drug Abuse and the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.

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