Increasing the report of alcohol use among low-income pregnant women

Purpose. To in crease the report of prenatal alcohol use in a community setting. Methods. A self-administered alcohol screening tool was developed and introduced at 12 randomly selected sites that administer the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC). A matched sample of 12 WIC sites continued to use the existing verbal standard of care for assessing alcohol use. Results. Rates of reported prenatal alcohol consumption at the 12 WC intervention sites were compared with rates at 12 control WIC sites using a repeated-measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) and independent-samples t-tests. Within 8 months of study commencement, rates of reported prenatal alcohol consumption were significantly higher at the intervention sites than at the control sites. Discussion. Use of a brief, self-administered screening tool in the WIC setting significantly increased reports of prenatal alcohol use, a key first step in the reduction of prenatal alcohol use. The WIC setting represents an excellent place to address the significant public health issue of prenatal alcohol exposure.