Drinking behavior of pregnant women and mothers of infant in Japan

Abstract

Background: Family environment has known as one of the main reason of alcohol misuse of children. However many research has shown the high correlation of father’s alcohol use and child alcohol use, few research only targeted on drinking behavior of mothers in Japan. In this research, we investigated drinking behavior of mothers, particularly in expected mothers and mothers of infants for basic data for the alcohol prevention of children. Methods: 200 questionnaires were distributed for women who are expected mother or mothers of infant. The questionnaire was included new Kurihama Alcoholism Screening Test (new KAST), which can evaluated participants for "normal", "caution needed to alcoholism", "suspicious alcoholism" depended on the score. Findings: Valid response was 100 (valid collection rate: 50.0%). 80(80.0%) of mothers were classified as “normalâ€. On the other hand, 11(11%), 9(9.0%) were classified as "caution needed to alcoholism", "suspicious alcoholism" respectively. Discussion: Apart from the fact that alcohol use during the period of pregnancy and lactation is directly affected their children’s health, 20% of mothers has alcohol related problem. This results suggested that education about alcohol should be effective not only for today’s health of children but also for the prevention of alcohol misuse of children.