Poor Predictors of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome

Fetal Alcohol Syndrome

Birthweight and Size are Poor Predictors of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome

Birthweight and Size are Poor Predictors of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome

Sampson and colleagues (1994) sought to better understand the relationship between prenatal alcohol exposure, birth size, and the neurobehavioral consequences that predictably emerge during childhood and adolescence. The main thesis of the paper is that prenatal alcohol exposure will impact birth size, but it is unknown how long after birth the correlation remains statistically significant. Since it has already been conclusively established that prenatal alcohol exposure of sufficient magnitude will result in measurable neurobehavioral deficits later in life, the authors simply examine the correlation between the amount of alcohol consumed during gestation and body measures up to the age of 14.

Rationale

At the time that this article was published, the research concerning a causal relationship between prenatal alcohol exposure and...
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