A metric derived by using multiple screening tools on perinatal alcohol use better predicted childhood behavioral problems than using any single measure of maternal alcohol consumption, such as binge-drinking occasions or weekly alcohol consumption, according to researchers studying fetal alcohol spectrum disorders.

Reuters reported Feb. 13 that researchers used the new tool to assess alcohol use among a sample of 75 African American mothers and cognitive and behavioral problems among their 4- to 5-year-old offspring.

“Our research showed that a metric of drinking which included many individual alcohol consumption measures better predicted poorer child performance,” said lead study author Lisa M. Chiodo of Wayne State University in Detroit.

The new tool identified more than 62 percent of the mothers as drinking at risky levels — more than 23 percent higher those than identified using the individual measures.

“We had good reason to think that risk drinking was more common than thought,” said Chiodo. “The real surprise was how successful the metric was in predicting deficits and problems in the children.” Chiodo said that the metric predicted poor child cognition and behavioral concerns “better than any of the individual measures of maternal alcohol consumption or screens for problem drinking alone.”

The study appears in the April 2009 edition of Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research.