title: Patterns and average volume of alcohol use among women of childbearing age.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Maternal alcohol use is a leading preventable cause of neurobehavioral and developmental abnormalities in children. This study examines the patterns and average volume of alcohol use among U.S. women of childbearing age in order to identify subgroups of high-risk women for selective intervention.
  
  
  METHODS
  A sample of 188,290 women aged 18-44 years participated in the Centers for Disease Controls and Prevention (CDC)'s Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) survey during the period of 2001-2003. Reported alcohol use patterns and average volume were examined for pregnant and nonpregnant women. Efforts were made to evaluate and characterize women who practiced various levels of binge drinking.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The results showed that approximately 2% of pregnant women and 13% of nonpregnant women in the United States engaged in binge drinking during the period of 2001-2003. Among the estimated average of 6.7 million women of childbearing age overall who engaged in binge drinking during the period, approximately 28.5% women also reported consuming an average of 5 drinks or more on typical drinking days, or about 21.4% women consumed at least 45 drinks on average in a month. Larger proportions of binge drinkers with high usual quantity of consumption were found among women of younger ages (18-24 years) or current smokers.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Future prevention efforts should include strategies that combine health messages and encourage women of childbearing age, with particular emphasis on women 18-24 years, to avoid alcohol and tobacco use, and take multivitamins and folic acid daily for better pregnancy outcomes. Other efforts must also include broad-based implementation of screening and brief intervention for alcohol misuse in primary and women's health care settings.
authors.affiliation: Division of Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities, National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Atlanta, GA 30333, USA. jxt9@cdc.gov
authors.forename: James
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Tsai
authors.forename: R Louise
authors.initials: RL
authors.lastname: Floyd
authors.forename: Patricia P
authors.initials: PP
authors.lastname: Green
authors.forename: Coleen A
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Boyle
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000428:Alcohol Drinking / Q000453:epidemiology*; D000437:Alcoholism / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000517:prevention & control; D002487:Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, U.S.; D003710:Demography; D005260:Female; D063647:Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D008429:Maternal Welfare / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011247:Pregnancy; D011248:Pregnancy Complications; D012307:Risk Factors; D012309:Risk-Taking; D013695:Temperance; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology