Assessing Prenatal Alcohol Exposure History For Pediatric Patients: Practices Among U.S. Clinicians.

Details

• Alternative Title:
  Maternal and Child Health Journal, 2025, v. 29, no. 4: Assessing Prenatal Alcohol Exposure History For Pediatric Patients: Practices Among U.S. Clinicians.
• Journal Article:
  Maternal and Child Health Journal
• Personal Author:
  Dunkley, Janae ; Deputy, Nicholas P. ; Denny, Clark H. ; Bertrand, Jacquelyn ; Godfred-Cato, Shana ; Kim, Shin Y.
• Description:
  The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends clinicians who treat pediatric patients screen for prenatal alcohol exposure (PAE) to facilitate the identification of children with fetal alcohol spectrum disorders and promote timely access to behavioral and cognitive interventions. We evaluated how frequently clinicians inquire about PAE in their pediatric patient interactions and the methods used to ascertain this information.
  
  We analyzed data from the Fall 2020 DocStyles survey, a web-based survey of primary healthcare professionals (n = 1754). Distributions for frequency of assessing PAE history for five pediatric populations and the methods used were calculated by clinician specialty (family practitioners FP, pediatricians, and nurse practitioners/physician assistants NP/PAs) and overall. Chi-square and Bonferroni post-hoc tests determined whether frequency of assessing PAE history varied by specialty.
  
  Among 779 clinicians serving pediatric patients, approximately 70.5%, 63.0%, and 60.7% reported often/always obtaining PAE history from parents of children with developmental/behavioral issues, adopted/foster children, and newborns, respectively. By contrast, less than half of respondents reported often/always collecting this information from parents of infants (47.6%) and new patients (38.2%). Most respondents reported collecting PAE history through interviews conducted by physicians or physician assistants (69.7%). Obtaining PAE history varied by specialty; pediatricians (71.5%) were more likely to collect PAE history for adopted/foster children when compared to FPs (57.7%, p = 0.003).
  
  PAE history is not routinely obtained for pediatric patients. These findings highlight the need for trainings and practice supports to aid clinicians in identifying and treating children at-risk of FASDs.
• Content Notes:
  Author manuscript
• Subjects:
  • Humans
  • Female
  • Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders
  • Pregnancy
  • Surveys and Questionnaires
  • Male
  • Adult
  • Prenatal Exposure Delayed Effects
  • Practice Patterns, Physicians'
  • Child
  More +
• Keywords:
  • Developmental disabilities
  • Developmental/behavioral issues
  • Fetal alcohol syndrome
  • Fetal alcohol spectrum disorders
  • Prenatal alcohol exposure
• Source:
  Maternal and Child Health Journal, 2025, v. 29, no. 4
• DOI:
  https://doi.org/10.1007/s10995-024-04015-0
• ISSN:
  1092-7875 ; 1573-6628
• Pubmed ID:
  39567462
• Pubmed Central ID:
  PMC12005974
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  CC999999/ImCDC/Intramural CDC HHSUnited States/
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  United States
• Pages in Document:
  449-456 (14 pdf pages)
• Volume:
  29
• Issue:
  4
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/261915/cdc_261915_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 364.47 KB]
• Collection(s):
  CDC Public Access
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:db1afca2f7c1304c676cffcbadbe2450d457b3f7e093623a90daef55859f777f3605b4ca4d6487e8fa00e2c4745874d2d9f9c9bed6a2df7e99e58f5a3112deb2