Estimating the Global Prevalence of Alcohol in Pregnancy and FAS
Jan 27, 2017
An article has been published in The Lancet titled "Estimation of national, regional and global prevalence of alcohol use during pregnancy and fetal alcohol syndrome: A systematic review and meta-analysis." The article involved a review of 328 studies of alcohol use in pregnancy, and 62 studies on FAS (Fetal alcohol syndrome). This allowed the researchers to estimate rates of FAS in various regions around the world. The authors found that globally, 9.8% of women drank during pregnancy, and the estimated prevalence of FAS in the general population was 14.6 per 10 000 people. The authors estimate that one in every 67 women who consumed alcohol during pregnancy would deliver a child with FAS.