Alcohol intake in early pregnancy and risk of Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) in children up to 19 years of age: a cohort study.

Abstract

BACKGROUND\nLittle is known about maternal alcohol intake in early pregnancy and the risk of Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) in the children beyond 5-years of age. We examined the association between alcohol binge drinking and weekly alcohol intake in early pregnancy and the risk of ADHD in the children followed from birth to 19\xa0years of age.\n\n\nMETHODS\nWe included 48,072 children born between 1998 and 2012, whose mothers participated in the Aarhus Birth Cohort. Maternal alcohol intake was obtained from a self-administered questionnaire completed in early pregnancy. ADHD-diagnoses were retrieved from the Danish Psychiatric Central Research Register and the Danish National Patient Register. Crude and adjusted hazard ratios (aHR) of ADHD according to alcohol binge drinking or weekly intake of alcohol were calculated using Cox regression.\n\n\nRESULTS\nCompared to children of women with no binge drinking episodes, we observed an aHR for ADHD of 0.91 (95% CI 0.76-1.08), 0.73 (95% CI 0.56-0.96), and 0.77 (95% CI 0.57-1.06) among children of women reporting one, two and three or more binge drinking episodes, respectively. Among children of women drinking less than one drink per week, one drink per week, two drinks per week and three or more drinks per week, we observed an aHR for ADHD of 0.87 (95% CI 0.74-1.03), 0.63 (95% CI 0.40-0.98), 1.30 (95% CI 0.89-1.92), 0.78 (95% CI 0.38-1.59), respectively when compared to children of women not drinking on a weekly basis.\n\n\nCONCLUSION\nWe found no evidence that binge drinking or low alcohol intake in early pregnancy was associated with the risk of ADHD in the children.