Publications

Prenatal alcohol exposure (PAE) is increasingly recognized as being associated with a wide range of physical health problems, in addition to the well-defined neurocognitive difficulties that have been reported (Mattson et al., 2019). In line with other prenatal perturbations, including smoking, inadequate nutrition, and exposure to stress, exposure of the fetus to alcohol during critical stages of development may contribute to “developmental origins of health and disease” (DOHaD), as first proposed by Barker (1995). DOHaD suggests that a suboptimal environment in early development may increase susceptibility to conditions such as hypertension, insulin resistance, and obesity, which are risk factors for prevalent noncommunicable chronic diseases such as cardiovascular disease and type II diabetes (Hanson and Gluckman, 2011).

To be included in this review published in 2019, the study must use a structured psychological intervention that aims to improve or change EF in children using either (a) a face‐to‐face format, (b) computerized format, or (c) both. Interventions must be delivered using (a) individual or (b) group format. Finally, interventions will be considered eligible if they are administered either (a) directly to children (e.g., working memory training) or (b) to children and caregivers/families.

Thestudy aimed to explore the lived experiences of Australian caregivers who received a FASD diagnosis for a child in their care, usingthe Australian Guide to the Diagnosis of FASD.

This invited “Comment” piece in 2019 accompanied a landmark paper by Cook and colleagues (Alcohol Clin Exp Res. 2019 Aug;43(8):1727-1733. doi: 10.1111/acer.14121) which was the first study to demonstrate an association between hypertension and children and adolescents with a FASD. The authors highlight that although animals studies had demonstrated an association between prenatal alcohol exposure and high blood pressure, similar data was lacking in cohorts of people with a FASD diagnosis.

Globally, the public health recommendation for exclusive breastfeeding to the first 6 months of life is not being achieved by many low- and middle-income countries. Many factors have been determined to affect the early cessation of breastfeeding; however, little attention has been paid to the role of alcohol, an increasingly favoured commodity, particularly in these Westernised nations. Maternal healthcare practitioners play a pivotal role in a woman’s breastfeeding journey by providing timely advice that can help support continued breastfeeding. Maternal healthcare practitioners (MHP) from across Australia were invited to take part in a semi-structured telephone interview (n = 19) to elicit their knowledge of a national alcohol policy guideline on alcohol and breastfeeding, their confidence to provide information on this topic, and if they were routinely incorporating conversations on alcohol and breastfeeding into their practice. The results affirmed that the majority of MHP were not aware of the national policy providing direction for safely consuming alcohol during lactation and were not incorporating this information into their practice. This study suggests having a national policy guideline for safe alcohol consumption during lactation has not promoted awareness of this topic among MHP as a potential strategy to support long-term breastfeeding duration.

The purpose of this study published in 2019 was to evaluate the available evidence on the association between low-to-moderate prenatal alcohol exposure (PAE) and the development of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms in the offspring.