First of all, Foetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder is really special.” It is 100% preventable, but it’s incurable and has very drastic consequences: more specifically distinguished into cognitive, behavioural and physical.
In April, Shchetinina authored an article in the scientific journal PLOS ONE devoted to the rate of pathological alcohol consumption among pregnant and perinatal women.
at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, where she is studying the life course consequences of prenatal alcohol exposure.
The potential outcome includes foetal alcohol spectrum disorder which is also characterised by its most significant subset, foetal alcohol syndrome.
Slopen said that the research helped specialists learn more about the pandemic years; the surveys revealed that increased drinking had occurred among women. It also examined the factors that reduce chances of seeking treatment, a move towards improving chances of getting treatment.
Respondents with insurance—Medicaid or private insurance—received treatment at higher rates and patients with financial access barriers mentioned insurance.
Some of them claimed that treatment was not a priority: this, according to Shchetinina, could stem from the stigma associated with alcohol consumption among pregnant women. Said Slopen, “It’s important to define the treatment and the limited access to these people, who can have alcohol use disorders and require treatment.” This is crucial both for the population-level approaches targeted at women who are pregnant and those women who are not pregnant but may become pregnant in the future.”
Shchetinina recalled, and stated that the results also call for improving such interventions for non-pregnant and non-parenting women who had higher prevalence of AUD. She also said results depicted the fact that women who had been arrested or those with arrest records were in treatment more than others. That could mean that gateways to care are the greatest barrier to accessing these health services.
“This was a point where we noted that females that had histories of arrest were likely to be offered treatment than other female subjects, hence getting arrested could offer women a way of accessing treatment,” she said.
However, it was clear that the judicial system was an entry point to health care; and this should not be so since finding a way to seek help should not be that easy. The providers also should be more active and the society also should be more encouraging.
Reference:
Powell A. Shedding light on alcohol’s long shadow among pregnant and parenting women. Medical Xpress
