Streissguth A P, Barr H M, Martin D C
Ciba Found Symp. 1984;105:176-96. doi: 10.1002/9780470720868.ch11.
The behavioural effects of varying amounts of alcohol exposure in utero were studied using a longitudinal prospective design. An unselected sample of 1529 pregnant women was interviewed in the fifth month of pregnancy regarding beverage consumption, diet, drug use, and socioeconomic background; a cohort of approximately 500 infants was selected at delivery for follow-up. Lengthy individual behavioural and anthropometric examinations were made of the children between birth and four years of age. Alcohol-related behavioural effects are still statistically significant at four years, as they were at birth and eight months, even after adjustment for variables such as maternal smoking, drug use and diet, education, birth order and family stress. Habituation, sucking pressure and latency to suck are some of the behaviours most affected on days 1 and 2, while reaction time, attention and response latency are most affected at four years. Thus alcohol exposure in utero appears to affect the speed and accuracy of information-processing in the offspring. The findings support a dose-response rather than a threshold effect on most of these behavioural outcomes. However, increased risk of a clinically suspect or abnormal child occurs only at the heavier drinking levels. Examination of the cohort of 500 children at seven years of age is under way.
采用纵向前瞻性设计研究了子宫内不同酒精暴露量的行为影响。在怀孕第五个月对1529名未经过筛选的孕妇进行了访谈，询问她们的饮料消费、饮食、药物使用和社会经济背景；分娩时从大约500名婴儿中选取一组进行随访。对出生至4岁的儿童进行了长时间的个体行为和人体测量检查。即使在对母亲吸烟、药物使用和饮食、教育、出生顺序和家庭压力等变量进行调整后，与酒精相关的行为影响在4岁时仍具有统计学意义，就像在出生时和8个月时一样。在出生后第1天和第2天，习惯化、吸吮压力和吸吮潜伏期是受影响最大的一些行为，而反应时间、注意力和反应潜伏期在4岁时受影响最大。因此，子宫内酒精暴露似乎会影响后代信息处理的速度和准确性。这些发现支持对大多数这些行为结果存在剂量反应而非阈值效应。然而，只有在饮酒量较大时，临床上可疑或异常儿童的风险才会增加。目前正在对这500名7岁儿童进行队列研究。
