Eur. J. Epidemiol, 0392-2990 November 1993, p. 599-606 EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF EPIDEMIOLOGY Vol. 9, No. 6 MODERATE MATERNALDRINKINGAND OUTCOME OF PREGNANCY F. LAZZARONI*, S. BONASSI **~, M. MAGNANI***, A. CALVI***, E. REPETTO***, G. SERRA °, F. PODESTA °° and N. PEARCE °°° *Istituto diPuericultura - University of Genova - Genoa - Italy. **Department of Epidemiology - Istituto Nazionale per la Ricerca sul Cancro - Viale Benedetto XV, 10 16132 Genoa - Italy. ***Istituto Giannina Gas#ni - Genoa - Italy. °Servizio Patologia Neonatale - Istituto di Puericultura - University of Genova - Genoa - Italy. °°Ospedale Civile di Volterra - Pisa - Italy. °°°Department of Medicine - Wellington School of Medicine - Wellington - New Zealand. Key words:Alcohol drinking - Pregnancy - Birth weight - Jaundice - Epidemiology The adverse effect of light or moderate maternal drinking during pregnancy on the well being of the newborn has been investigated. The study group included 2145 live births in the obstetric units of 11 Italian cities between February 1989 and July 1990. A detailed life style questionnaire was administered to the mothers. Information on the newborn was collected from clinical records as well as from a clinical examination. Both univariate and multivariate analyses were suggestive of a decrease in mean birth weight associated with maternal drinking during pregnancy, especially in women who also smoked during pregnancy. This effect was higher in male newborns. The occurrence of low birth weight (< 2500 g.) was more frequent in women drinking during pregnancy in both smokers and non-smokers (for this latter group an effect is suggested only for a daily consumption of more than 10 grams of absolute alcohol). Maternal alcohol drinking of more than 20 grams of absolute alcohol per day also increased the risk of preterm delivery (OR = 2.35; 95% CI: .98 - 5.59). Finally, an increase in the rate of early jaundice was found, also associated with maternal drinking (OR = 3.30; 95% CI: 1.03 - 10.54). INTRODUCTION The association between heavy maternal alcohol consumption during pregnancy and decreased fetal growth has been examined in several previous studies (15, 17, 19, 23). The effects of moderate use of alcohol have not been fully evaluated, and conflicting results have been reported (1, 4, 6, 10, 12, 21). Problems in assessing these findings include the wide variety of study designs, the different methods of assessment Corresponding author. and categorization of intake, and the wide differences in the potential confounders considered. Furthermore, very few investigations have adequate statistical power in the subgroup of interest. The present study evaluates the effect of varying levels of maternal alcohol consumption during pregnancy on the outcome of pregnancy controlling for a large number of potential confounders. Since a previous pilot study, carried out by the authors in 1986 (7), found an association between maternal drinking and neonatal jaundice, particular emphasis was given to this issue. 599