Cent Eur J Public Health 2004, 12(4):179-183

Smoking and Alcohol Drinking During Pregnancy The Reliability of Retrospective Maternal Self-reported Information

Czeizel A.E., Petik D., Puhó E.
Foundation for the Community Control of Hereditary Diseases, Budapest, Hungary

Background: The reliability of retrospective maternal self-reported information regarding smoking and alcohol drinking during pregnancy seemed necessary to be checked.

Methods: Two groups of congenital abnormalities were selected for the study from the population based Hungarian Congenital Abnormality Registry. The prevalence of smoking and drinking during the study pregnancy was measured in the mothers of 81 cases affected with isolated orofacial cleft and 537 cases with congenital limb deficiencies, and in their matched control pairs without any defect by maternal self-reported retrospective information through a mailed structured questionnaire. In the second step the latter data were checked by an independent personal interview of fathers and other family members at the home visit or in our department using the same structured questionnaire.

Results: The family consensus indicated the low reliability of retrospective maternal self-reported information concerning smoking in the mothers of cases but not in mothers of controls. However, the comparison of retrospective maternal self-reported data and information of close relatives indicated a reported bias concerning the drinking of alcohol beverages during pregnancy in both controls and cases.

Conclusions: Since retrospective maternal self-reported data had low reliability, therefore, data of smoking and alcohol drinking were not collected for the data set of the Hungarian Case-Control Surveillance of Congenital Abnormalities between 1980 and 1996.

Keywords: smoking during pregnancy, alcohol drinking during pregnancy, case-control analysis, reliability of retrospective maternal information.

Received: February 2, 2004; Revised: June 29, 2004; Accepted: June 29, 2004; Published: December 1, 2004  Show citation

ACS AIP APA ASA Harvard Chicago Chicago Notes IEEE ISO690 MLA NLM Turabian Vancouver
Czeizel AE, Petik D, Puhó E. Smoking and Alcohol Drinking During Pregnancy The Reliability of Retrospective Maternal Self-reported Information. Cent Eur J Public Health. 2004;12(4):179-183. PubMed PMID: 15666453.
Share...
Download citation
  • BibTeX (.bib)
  • Bookends (.ris)
  • EasyBib (.ris)
  • EndNote (.enw)
  • EndNote 8 (.xml)
  • ISI WoS (.isi)
  • Medlars (.medlars)
  • Mendeley (.ris)
  • MODS (.xml)
  • Papers (.ris)
  • RefWorks (.txt)
  • RefManager (.ris)
  • RIS (.ris)
  • MS Word (.xml)
  • Zotero (.ris)
    • Open full article

    References

    1. CzeizelAE, Rockenbauer M, Siffel Cs, Varga E: Description and mission evaluation of the Hungarian Case-Control Surveillance of Congenital Abnormalities, 1980-1996. Teratology, 2001; 63: 176-185. Go to original source... Go to PubMed...
    2. Lemoine P, Harrousseau H, Borteyra JP, Menuet JC: Les enfants des parents alcoholiques: anomalies observées à propos de 127 cas. Arch Fr Pediatr, 1967; 25: 830-832.
    3. Jones KL, Smith DW, Ulleland CL, Streissguth AP: Pattern of malformation in offspring of chronic alcoholic mothers. Lancet,1973; 1: 1267-1271. Go to original source...
    4. Czeizel AE, Fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) in Hungary. In: Agarwal DP, Buda B, Czeizel AE, Goedde HW (eds): Alcohol Consumption and Alcoholism in Hungary. Akadémiai Kiadó. Budapest, 1997, pp. 154-170.
    5. Abel EL: Fetal alcohol syndrome and fetal alcohol effects. Plenum Press. New York, 1983. Go to original source...
    6. Lowe CR: Effect of mother's smoking habits on birth weight of their children. Br Med J, 1959; 2: 673-676. Go to original source...
    7. Jedrychowski W, Flak E: Confronting the prenatal effects of active and passive tobacco smoking on the birth weight of children. Cent Eur J Publ Hlth, 1996; 3: 201-5. Go to original source...
    8. Kukla, L., Hruba, D., Tyrlik, M.: Smoking and damages of reproduction: evidence of ELSPAC. Cent Eur J Publ Hlth, 2001, 9: 59-63.
    9. Kullander S, Källen B: A prospective study of smoking and pregnancy. Acta Obstet Gynecol Scand, 1971; 50: 83-94. Go to original source...
    10. CzeizelAE, Kodaj I, LenzWC: Smoking during pregnancy and congenital limb deficiency. Brit Med J, 1994; 308: 1473-1476. Go to original source... Go to PubMed...
    11. Christensen K, Olsen J, Norgaard-Pedersen B: Oral clefts: transforming growth factor alpha gene variants, and maternal smoking: a population-based case-control study in Denmark, 1991-1994. Am J Epidemiol, 1999; 149: 248-255. Go to original source...
    12. Czeizel AE, Nagy E: Recent aetiological study on facial clefting in Hungary. Acta Paediatr Hung, 1986; 27: 145-166.
    13. Czeizel AE, Evans JA, Kodaj I, Lenz W: Congenital limb deficiencies in Hungary - genetic and teratologic epidemiological studies. Budapest, Akadémiai Kiadó, 1994.
    14. Czeizel AE: First 25 years of the Hungarian Congenital Abnormality Registry. Teratology, 1997; 55: 299-305. Go to original source... Go to PubMed...
    15. Gönczy L, Czeizel AE: Integrating smoking cessation into periconceptional care. Tobacco Control, 1996; 5: 160-161. Go to original source...
    16. Kóbor I, Pejtsik B, Járai I, Pados I, Horváth M, Csabfalvy, G.: Effect of smoking during pregnancy on the birth-weight percentile values (in Hungarian with English abstract). Orvosi Hetilap, 1988; 129: 21-23. Go to PubMed...
    17. Agarwal DP, Buda B, Czeizel AE, Goedde HW: Alcohol consumption and alcoholism in Hungary. Budapest, Akadémiai Kiadó, 1997.
    18. Källen B: Epidemiology of human reproduction. Florida, CRC Press, Bocz Raton, 1988.
    19. Pirie PL, Lando H, Curry SJ, McBridge CM, Grothaus LC: Tobacco alochol and coffeine use and cessation in early pregnancy. Am J Prev Med, 2000; 18: 54-61. Go to original source...
    20. Williams GD, Aitken SS, Malin H: Reliability of self-reported alcohol consumption in a general population. J Stud Alcohol, 1985; 46: 223-227. Go to original source... Go to PubMed...
    21. Kendrich JS, Zahniser SC, Miller N, et al.: Integrating smoking cessation into routine public prenatal care: the Smoking Cessation Pregnancy Project. Am J Publ Health, 1995; 85: 217-222. Go to original source...
    22. Windsor RA, Lowe JB, Perkins LL et al.: Health education for pregnant smokers: its behavioral impact and cost benefit.Am J Publ Health, 1993; 83: 201-206. Go to original source...
    23. Babor TF, Stephens RS, Marlatt GA: Verbal report methods in clinical research on alcoholism: response bias and its minimization. J Stud Alcohol, 1987; 48: 410-424. Go to original source... Go to PubMed...
    24. Czarnecki DM, Russel M, Cooper ML, Salter D.: Five-year reliability of self-reported alcohol consumption. J Stud Alcohol, 1990; 51: 68-76. Go to original source... Go to PubMed...
    25. Werch CE: Two procedures to reduce response bias in reports of alcohol consumption. J Stud Alcohol, 1990; 51: 327-330. Go to original source... Go to PubMed...
    26. Sobell LC, Sobell MB: Self-report issues in alcohol abuse: state of the art and future directions. Behav Assess, 1990; 12: 77-90.
    27. Harris TR, Wilsnack RW, Klassen AD: Reliability of retrospective self-reports of alcohol consumption among women: data from a U.S. national sample. J Stud Alcohol, 1994; 55: 309-314. Go to original source... Go to PubMed...
    28. Ernhart CB, Morrow-Tlucak M, Sokol RJ, Martier S.: Underreporting of alcohol use in pregnancy. Alcohol Clin Exp Res, 1988; 12: 506-511. Go to original source...
    29. Little RE, Uhl CN, Labbe RF, Abkowitz JL, Phillips EL: Agreement between laboratory tests and self-reports of alcohol, tobacco, caffeine, marijuana and other drug use in post-partum women. Soc Sci Med, 1986; 22: 91-98. Go to original source...
    30. Witt JS, Haile RW:Agreement in alcohol consumption levels as measured by two different questionnaires. J Stud Alcohol, 1996; 57: 406-409. Go to original source... Go to PubMed...
    31. Bull LBH, Kvigne VL, Leonardison GR, Lacina L, Welty TK.: Validation of a self-administered questionnaire to screen for prenatal alcohol use in Northern Plains Indian Women. Am J Prev Med, 1999; 16: 240-243. Go to original source...

    Return to the content