Drinking during pregnancy decreases word attack and arithmetic scores on standardized tests: adolescent data from a population-based prospective study.
Women (1529) were interviewed in midpregnancy, and a cohort of their children has been examined at various ages. The two standardized tests presented herein are part of a large battery of tests administered when the children were 14 years old. "Word Attack" (n = 462) measures phonological processing on a task involving the reading of pseudowords in nontimed performance. "Arithmetic" (n = 191) measures auditorily processed mental computations in timed performance. Scores on both tests were associated with prenatal alcohol exposure in a dose-dependent fashion. These effects were robust when considered in relation to a wide variety of potentially confounding variables, such as prenatal exposure to tobacco and other drugs, sociodemographic characteristics, and traumatic postnatal events. A variety of alcohol scores were related to these two performance measures, but those involving a massing of drinks on a given occasion had the strongest association. The higher the average number of drinks/occasion, the poorer the offspring performance on tasks thought to underlie numerical problem solving and reading proficiency. Earlier reports of prenatal, alcohol-related neurobehavioral deficits in childhood have now been extended into adolescence.
Streissguth
A P
AP
Department of Psychiatry, University of Washington, Seattle 98195.
Barr
H M
HM
Olson
H C
HC
Sampson
P D
PD
Bookstein
F L
FL
Burgess
D M
DM
D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D015331:Cohort Studies; D004305:Dose-Response Relationship, Drug; D000431:Ethanol / Q000009:adverse effects; D005260:Female; D063647:Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007859:Learning Disabilities / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D008433:Mathematics; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D010700:Phonetics; D011247:Pregnancy; D011340:Problem Solving; D011446:Prospective Studies; D011932:Reading; D014861:Washington
D000431:Ethanol