Philip A. May ^1*, J. Phillip Gossage ¹, Lesley E. Brooke ², Cudore L. Snell ³, Anna-Susan Marais ⁴, Loretta S. Hendricks ⁴, Julie A. Croxford ⁵, Denis L. Viljoen ⁶

¹ The University of New Mexico
² The University of Cape Town and the Foundation for Alcohol Related Research (FARR)
³ Howard University
⁴ FARR
⁵ Wayne State University
⁶ University of Witwatersrand, Dept. of Human Genetics, and FARR

^* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: pmay{at}unm.edu.

	Abstract

Objectives: Risk factors for fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) are defined where the highest documented rate of FAS in the world exists. Methods: Mothers of 53 first graders with FAS are compared with 116 randomly-selected controls. Results: Differences exist in socio-economic status, religiosity, education, gravidity, parity, and marital status. Mothers of children originate from alcohol-abusing families where drinking heavily is almost universal. Current and past alcohol use by case mothers is heavy binge drinking on weekends with no reduction during 87% of the pregnancies. Twenty percent of controls drank during pregnancy, declining to 12.7% by third trimester. Smoking percentage during pregnancy was higher for case mothers than controls (75.5% vs. 30.3%); but smoking quantity was low. FAS births occurring to relatively young women (28 years) is not explained by early drinking onset or years of drinking (mean = 7.6 years). Added to traditional risks, case mothers are smaller on anthropomorphic measures (height, weight, head circumference, and body mass index), likely indicators of poor nutrition and second generation fetal alcohol exposure. Conclusions: Prevention is needed to address maternal risk factors for FAS.

Key Words: Community Health, Epidemiology, Pregnancy, Prevention, Alcohol, Women's Health

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