Health advice on alcohol consumption in pregnant women in Seville (Spain)

Abstract

Objective: To analyse to what extent pregnant women remembered having received health advice regarding alcohol consumption during pregnancy, what the message they perceived was and whether there is social inequality in this regard.

Method: A cross-sectional descriptive study was performed with a sample of 426 pregnant women (in their 20th week of pregnancy) receiving care in the outpatient clinics of a university hospital in a southern Spanish city (Seville). The data were collected through face-to-face structured interviews carried out by trained health professionals.

Results: 43% of the interviewed women stated that they had not received any health advice in this regard. Only 43.5% of the sample remembered having received the correct message (not to consume any alcohol at all during pregnancy) from their midwife, 25% from their obstetrician and 20.3% from their general practitioner. The women with a low educational level were those who least declared having received health advice on the issue.

Conclusion: The recommended health advice to avoid alcohol consumption during pregnancy does not effectively reach a large proportion of pregnant women. Developing institutional programmes which help healthcare professionals to carry out effective preventive activities of foetal alcohol spectrum disorder is needed.

Keywords: Alcohol; Consejo sanitario; Desigualdad social; Embarazo; Foetal alcohol spectrum disorder; Health advice; Pregnancy; Prevención; Prevention; Social inequality; Trastornos del espectro alcohólico fetal.