title: Did you drink alcohol during pregnancy? Inaccuracy and discontinuity of women's self-reports: On the way to establish meconium ethyl glucuronide (EtG) as a biomarker for alcohol consumption during pregnancy.
abstract: Consuming alcohol during pregnancy is one of the most verified prenatal risk factors for impaired child development. Information about the amount of alcohol consumed prenatally is needed to anticipate negative effects and to offer timely support. Women's self-reports are not reliable, often influenced by social stigmas and retrospective recall bias, causing biomarkers of intrauterine ethanol exposure to become more and more relevant. The present study compares both women's gestational and retrospective self-reports of prenatal alcohol consumption with levels of ethyl glucuronide (EtG) in meconium. Women (n = 180) gave self-reports of prenatal alcohol consumption both during their 3rd trimester (gestational self-report) and when their children were 6-8 years old (retrospective self-report). Child meconium was collected after birth and analyzed for EtG. No individual feedback of children's EtG level was given to the women. All analyses were run separately for two cut-offs: 10 ng/g (limit of detection) and 120 ng/g (established by Goecke et al., 2014). Mothers of children with EtG values above 10 ng/g (n = 42) tended to report prenatal alcohol consumption more frequently. There was no trend or significance for the EtG cut-off of 120 ng/g (n = 26) or for retrospective self-report. When focusing on women who retrospectively reported alcohol consumption during pregnancy, a claim to five or more consumed glasses per month made an EtG over the 10 ng/g and the 120 ng/g cut-off more probable. Women whose children were over the 10 ng/g EtG cut-off were the most inconsistent in their self-report behavior, whereas the consistency in the above 120 ng/g EtG group was higher than in any other group. The next step to establish EtG as a biomarker for intrauterine alcohol exposure is to correlate EtG values in meconium with child developmental impairments.
authors: Division of Child and Adolescent Mental Health, University Hospital Erlangen, Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg, Schwabachanlage 6 und 10, 91054 Erlangen, Germany. Electronic address: anna.eichler@uk-erlangen.de.
authors: Anna
authors: A
authors: Eichler
authors: Division of Child and Adolescent Mental Health, University Hospital Erlangen, Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg, Schwabachanlage 6 und 10, 91054 Erlangen, Germany.
authors: Juliane
authors: J
authors: Grunitz
authors: Division of Child and Adolescent Mental Health, University Hospital Erlangen, Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg, Schwabachanlage 6 und 10, 91054 Erlangen, Germany.
authors: Jennifer
authors: J
authors: Grimm
authors: Division of Child and Adolescent Mental Health, University Hospital Erlangen, Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg, Schwabachanlage 6 und 10, 91054 Erlangen, Germany.
authors: Lisa
authors: L
authors: Walz
authors: Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University Hospital Erlangen, Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg, Universitätsstraße 21-23, 91054 Erlangen, Germany.
authors: Eva
authors: E
authors: Raabe
authors: Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University Hospital Erlangen, Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg, Universitätsstraße 21-23, 91054 Erlangen, Germany; Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, RWTH Aachen University, Pauwelsstraße 30, 52074 Aachen, Germany.
authors: Tamme W
authors: TW
authors: Goecke
authors: Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University Hospital Erlangen, Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg, Universitätsstraße 21-23, 91054 Erlangen, Germany.
authors: Matthias W
authors: MW
authors: Beckmann
authors: Division of Child and Adolescent Mental Health, University Hospital Erlangen, Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg, Schwabachanlage 6 und 10, 91054 Erlangen, Germany.
authors: Oliver
authors: O
authors: Kratz
authors: Division of Child and Adolescent Mental Health, University Hospital Erlangen, Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg, Schwabachanlage 6 und 10, 91054 Erlangen, Germany; kbo-Heckscher-Klinikum, Deisenhofener Str. 28, 81539 München, Germany.
authors: Hartmut
authors: H
authors: Heinrich
authors: Division of Child and Adolescent Mental Health, University Hospital Erlangen, Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg, Schwabachanlage 6 und 10, 91054 Erlangen, Germany.
authors: Gunther H
authors: GH
authors: Moll
authors: Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University Hospital Erlangen, Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg, Universitätsstraße 21-23, 91054 Erlangen, Germany.
authors: Peter A
authors: PA
authors: Fasching
authors: Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University Hospital Erlangen, Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg, Schwabachanlage 6, 91054 Erlangen, Germany.
authors: Johannes
authors: J
authors: Kornhuber
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000428:Alcohol Drinking / Q000378:metabolism*; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000378:metabolism; D005260:Female; D005965:Glucuronates / Q000378:metabolism*; D006801:Humans; D008470:Meconium / Q000378:metabolism*; D011939:Mental Recall; D009035:Mothers / Q000523:psychology*; D011247:Pregnancy; D057566:Self Report / Q000592:standards*; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers; D005965:Glucuronates; C093924:ethyl glucuronide
keywords: Alcohol; EtG; Ethyl glucuronide; Meconium; Pregnancy; Self-report