Binge alcohol drinking before pregnancy is closely associated with the development of macrosomia: Korean pregnancy registry cohort

Abstract

Background Alcohol drinking during pregnancy has been well-known to cause the detrimental effects on fetal development; however, the adverse effects of pre-pregnancy drinking are largely unknown. We investigate whether alcohol drinking status before pregnancy is associated with the risk for macrosomia, an offspring’s adverse outcome, in a Korean pregnancy registry cohort (n = 4,542) enrolled between 2013 and 2017. Methods Binge drinking was defined as consuming ≥5 drinks on one occasion and ≥2 times a week, and a total 2,886 pregnant, included in the final statistical analysis, were divided into 3 groups: never, non-binge, and binge drinking. Results The prevalence of macrosomia was higher in binge drinking before pregnancy than those with never or non-binge drinking (7.5% vs. 3.2% or 2.9%, p = 0.002). Multivariable logistic regression analysis demonstrated an independent association between macrosomia and prepregnancy binge drinking after adjusting for other confounders (adjusted odds ratio = 2.29; 95% CI, 1.08–4.86; p = 0.031). The model added binge drinking before pregnancy led to improvement of 10.6% (95% CI, 2.03–19.07; p = 0.0006) in discrimination from traditional risk prediction models. Conclusion Together, binge drinking before pregnancy might be an independent risk factor for developing macrosomia. Intensified intervention for drinking alcohol in women who are planning a pregnancy is important and may help prevent macrosomia.