Publications

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.

The current study published in 2019 characterises the impact on blastocyst, uterine and placental outcomes in a rat model of periconceptional alcohol exposure, in which 12.5% ethanol is administered in a liquid diet from 4 days before until 4 days after conception.

The combined behaviours of alcohol consumption and ineffective or non-use of contraception could place sexually active individuals of reproductive age at risk of unintended alcohol-exposed pregnancy. The first aim of this study published in 2019 was to assess levels of contraceptive use in a sample of university students who reported using alcohol. The second aim was to assess knowledge of contraception, reproduction, risks of alcohol use while pregnant, and attitudes regarding contraception compared with reported contraceptive use behaviour.