Is the association between maternal alcohol consumption in pregnancy and pre-school child behavioural and emotional problems causal? Multiple approaches for controlling unmeasured confounding.

ABSTRACT:

Background and aims

Hazardous drinking (i.e. alcohol consumption that places drinkers at risk for adverse health outcomes) during pregnancy is associated with adverse child outcomes. To address whether the associations are causal, we aimed to estimate the effect of maternal hazardous drinking during the first trimester on offspring emotional and behavioural problems throughout the pre-school age. We adjusted for: (1) measured confounding (e.g. smoking), (2) familial risk factors by sibling control design and (3) non-shared environmental risk factors by using hazardous drinking the 3 months before pregnancy as an instrumental variable.

Design

Prospective cohort study. Participants were recruited between 1999 and 2009 at ultrasound examination offered to all pregnant women in

SUBMITTER: Lund IO 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7259544 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature