More Than 100 Thousand Children With Fetal Alcohol Syndrome Appear In The World Every Year

More than 100 thousand children with fetal alcohol syndrome appear in the world every year

Fetal alcohol syndrome is diagnosed in 15 people out of every 10,000 children whose mothers drank alcohol during pregnancy. This disease is characterized by problems with the psyche, behavior and learning, as well as physical characteristics - a certain structure of the face, deficiency in height and weight. The lead author of the study stressed that the numbers could be underreported.

In the world, 119 thousand children are born annually, suffering from fetal alcohol syndrome, the most serious disease from the entire list of fetal alcohol spectrum disorders. Due to the fact that a pregnant woman drinks alcohol, the fetus can experience various developmental disorders, both physical and mental. In the world, according to research by scientists, about 10% of women drink during pregnancy, and in some countries their share reaches 45%. Scientists from the Canadian Center for Addiction and Mental Health (Center for Addiction and Mental Health) have identified countries whose government, according to researchers, should pay special attention to the prevention of alcohol use in expectant mothers.

The scientific work was supervised by Svetlana Popova. She said that not every drinking mother gives birth to a child with disabilities, this happens in about 1 case out of 67. Out of every 10 thousand children whose mothers drank alcohol during pregnancy, fetal alcohol syndrome is diagnosed in 15 people. This disease is characterized by problems with the psyche, behavior and learning, as well as physical characteristics - a certain structure of the face, deficiency in height and weight. The lead author of the study emphasized that the numbers could be underreported as they do not account for other conditions in the fetal alcohol spectrum disorder group.

What exactly affects the disease is not yet known. It is unclear whether there is a relationship between the likelihood of pathology and the amount of alcohol, the frequency and timing of its use. Perhaps smoking, stress, unhealthy diet, genetics play a role. The safest thing, according to scientists, is to completely abstain from alcoholic beverages while carrying a child. Alcohol can disrupt the development of any organ of the fetus, especially its effect on the forming brain.

The researchers named five countries where pregnant women drink alcohol most often: Russia, Great Britain, Denmark, Belarus and Ireland. On average, people in Europe drink 2.6 times more than the global average. The lowest level of alcohol consumption was recorded in the Eastern Mediterranean and Southeast Asia, residents of these regions prefer to refrain from such drinks.

Svetlana Popova and her colleagues plan to apply the model they have developed in their future work in order to count not only the number of children born with fetal alcohol syndrome, but also those who are born with related pathologies. A year ago, researchers at the Center for Addiction and Mental Health Research found that 428 other diseases are associated with fetal alcohol spectrum disorders. Newborns who suffered from any of the list of FAS disorders were more likely to have problems with vision, hearing, later they were diagnosed with attention deficit, difficulties in communication. Canada alone spent $ 1.8 billion by 2016 on treatment for the effects of fetal alcohol syndrome.

It should be noted that the development of the disease may depend not only on the mother, but also on the father. In May last year, MedNovosti told that the health of the unborn child depends on the lifestyle and age of his father, and if the father abused alcohol, his son or daughter may have problems regardless of whether the mother abstained from alcohol during pregnancy or not. In 75% of children with FAS, their fathers were alcoholics.

Source: The global toll of fetal alcohol syndrome

Worldwide, an estimated 119,000 children are born with fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) each year, a new study shows. The study provides the first-ever estimates of the proportion of women who drink during pregnancy, as well as estimates of FAS by country, World Health Organization region and worldwide.

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