An investigation of the link between prenatal alcohol exposure and sleep problems across childhood

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Chandler-Mather, Ned
Donovan, Caroline
Shelton, Doug
Dawe, Sharon
Occhipinti, Stefano
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2020
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Abstract

Objective: To investigate the association between dose and frequency of prenatal alcohol exposure (PAE) and sleep problems in children, after controlling for established risk factors for sleep problems. Methods: Data from the birth cohort of the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (LSAC) was used. Mothers of 3447 children provided information on alcohol consumption during pregnancy, children’s sleep problems from 2- to 9-years, and potential confounders associated with sleep problems. Children were classified into PAE groups based on distinct patterns of maternal drinking during pregnancy: abstinent, occasional, low, moderate, and heavy. The effect of PAE on the number and persistence of sleep problems across childhood (2−9 years) was examined. Results: After controlling for multiple covariates that impact sleep, children with heavy PAE had 1.13 more sleep problems across childhood (2−9 years) relative to children whose mothers were abstainers, in particular 0.37 more at 2- to 3-years (0.504, 95 % CI 0.053, 0.956), and 0.34 more at 6- to 7-years (0.847, 95 % CI 0.299, 1.396). Compared to children of abstainers, heavy PAE increases the probability of having persistent sleep problems from 2- to 9-years by 22.57 %. No negative associations between moderate or low PAE and sleep were observed. Parenting, family, economic, and child health factors also significantly affected child sleep. Conclusion: Heavy PAE was associated with significantly more sleep problems across childhood and a higher probability of reporting persistent sleep problems, relative to children with no PAE. Implications for the understanding and management of sleep in young children with PAE and FASD are discussed.

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Drug and Alcohol Dependence

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© 2020 Elsevier. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Licence, which permits unrestricted, non-commercial use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, providing that the work is properly cited.

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Biomedical and clinical sciences

Psychology

Biochemistry and cell biology

Pharmacology and pharmaceutical sciences

Epidemiology

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Chandler-Mather, N; Donovan, C; Shelton, D; Dawe, S; Occhipinti, S, An investigation of the link between prenatal alcohol exposure and sleep problems across childhood, Drug and Alcohol Dependence, 2020

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