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Pregnant women's alcohol consumption : the predictive utility of intention to drink and prepregnancy drinking behaviour

Zammit, Sonia L., Skouteris, Helen, Wertheim, Eleanor H., Paxton, Susan J. and Milgrom, Jeannette 2008, Pregnant women's alcohol consumption : the predictive utility of intention to drink and prepregnancy drinking behaviour, Journal of women's health, vol. 17, no. 9, pp. 1513-1522.


Title Pregnant women's alcohol consumption : the predictive utility of intention to drink and prepregnancy drinking behaviour
Author(s) Zammit, Sonia L.
Skouteris, Helen
Wertheim, Eleanor H.
Paxton, Susan J.
Milgrom, Jeannette
Journal name Journal of women's health
Volume number 17
Issue number 9
Start page 1513
End page 1522
Publisher Mary Ann Lievert, Inc. Publishers
Place of publication New Rochelle, N.Y.
Publication date 2008-11
ISSN 1540-9996
1931-843X
Summary Objective: This study had two aims: (1) to examine pregnant women's alcohol consumption across time from prepregnancy until childbirth and (2) to explore whether prepregnancy drinking and intention to drink predict prenatal alcohol consumption while controlling for relevant demographic variables.

Methods: At 17–21 weeks, 248 pregnant women completed questions about demographics, intention to drink alcohol during the subsequent pregnancy, and retrospective measures of prepregnancy and early pregnancy consumption. After this time, calendars were sent fortnightly assessing daily alcohol consumption until birth.

Results: For women who drank both prepregnancy and postpregnancy confirmation, average fortnight alcohol consumption in the first weeks of pregnancy was lower than during prepregnancy, and consumption continued to decrease between gestational weeks 1 and 8, particularly following pregnancy confirmation, after which it remained relatively stable. When predicting whether women drank in late pregnancy, intention accounted for unique variance after controlling for income and prepregnancy drinking. For women who drank after pregnancy confirmation, prepregnancy drinking quantity significantly predicted intention to drink, which in turn predicted fortnight alcohol consumption in later pregnancy, after controlling for prepregnancy drinking and income.

Conclusions: Findings highlight the need to measure alcohol consumption at multiple time points across pregnancy, the need for educating and supporting women to reduce consumption when planning pregnancies, and the usefulness of intention to drink as a predictor of drinking during pregnancy.
Language eng
Field of Research 170106 Health, Clinical and Counselling Psychology
Socio Economic Objective 929999 Health not elsewhere classified
HERDC Research category C1 Refereed article in a scholarly journal
HERDC collection year 2008
Persistent URL http://hdl.handle.net/10536/DRO/DU:30017689

Document type: Journal Article
Collection: School of Psychology
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