Current advice to pregnant women about moderate alcohol consumption during pregnancy is contradictory, with some official guidelines recommending complete abstinence and others suggesting that moderate use is safe. Previous studies have produced conflicting and inconsistent evidence on the effects of moderate alcohol intake on a child's IQ. This may be because it is difficult to separate the effects of moderate alcohol consumption from other lifestyle and social factors, such as smoking, diet, affluence, mother's age and education.

 

This study, believed to be the first substantial one of its kind, used genetic variation to investigate the effects of moderate (<1-6 units of alcohol per week) drinking during pregnancy among a large group of women and their children. Since the individual variations that people have in their DNA are not connected to lifestyle and social factors, the approach removes that potential complication.

 

Four genetic variants in alcohol-metabolising genes among the 4,167 children were strongly related to lower IQ at age eight. The child's IQ was on average almost two points lower per genetic modification they possessed.