Alcohol Use Disorders and Increased Risk of Adverse Birth Complications and Outcomes: An 11-Year Nationwide Cohort Study.

Sarah Soyeon Oh,Eun-Cheol Park,Young Ju Kim,Yongho Jee

doi:10.3390/ijerph17228515

Abstract

For women who suffer from Alcohol Use Disorders (AUDs), the use of alcohol before and/or during pregnancy may result in various birth complications, including miscarriage, stillbirth, or preterm delivery. Thus, this study aimed to explore whether Alcohol Use Disorders (AUDs) are associated with increased risk of adverse birth complications and outcomes. A total of 76,799 deliveries between 2003 and 2013 in the Korean National Health Insurance Service National Sample Cohort (NHIS-NSC) were analyzed. Women with an AUD diagnosis preceding delivery were identified as individuals with alcohol dependence. A multivariate Cox proportional hazards model was used to estimate the hazard ratio of adverse birth complications and outcomes associated with alcohol dependence. Diagnosis of an AUD was associated with increased risk of adverse birth complications (Hazard Ratio [HR]: 1.15, 95% CI: 1.01–1.31, p = 0.0302). This was especially the case for women whose AUD diagnosis was in the same year as their delivery (HR: 1.53, 95% CI: 1.24–1.88, p < 0.0001). AUDs were associated with increased risk of adverse birth outcomes, especially when prevalent in the same year as a woman’s delivery. Our study confirms that the monitoring of expecting women with a diagnosis of alcohol-related problems may be useful in preventing adverse birth complications.

Highlights

During the COVID-19 pandemic, alcohol consumption has been increasing as individuals experience increased feelings of social estrangement, self-isolation, and a sense of loneliness [1].For individuals with Alcohol Use Disorders (AUDs), this proposes a serious health-related problem as chronic ethanol intake is associated with increased risk of bacterial and viral lung infections, includingCOVID-19 [1], as well as multisystemic damage to the liver, heart, lungs, and body [2].AUDs are a maladaptive pattern of heavy and harmful alcohol use that leads to various behavioral, cognitive, and physiological phenomena, including a strong desire to drink, increased tolerance, and physical withdrawal [3]
Women with AUD diagnosis in the same year as their delivery had the highest prevalence of adverse birth outcomes (24.3%), while women with no AUD diagnosis had the lowest prevalence of adverse birth outcomes (15.2%)
Our findings show that AUD diagnosis is significantly associated with increased risk of adverse birth outcomes, especially when the diagnosis is made in close proximity to delivery

Summary

Introduction

For individuals with Alcohol Use Disorders (AUDs), this proposes a serious health-related problem as chronic ethanol intake is associated with increased risk of bacterial and viral lung infections, including. AUDs are a maladaptive pattern of heavy and harmful alcohol use that leads to various behavioral, cognitive, and physiological phenomena, including a strong desire to drink, increased tolerance, and physical withdrawal [3]. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that the harmful use of alcohol is responsible for approximately 3 million deaths (5.3% of all deaths) each year [4]. In the United States alone, AUDs are believed to affect an estimated 15 million people, including 9.2 million men and 5.2 million women [5]. In South Korea, AUDs are believed to affect around 12.2% of adults between 18 and 74 years old, including one in five men [6]

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