Prenatal Alcohol Exposure and the Risk of Depression in Offspring: a Meta-Analysis

Table 1

Characteristics of the included cohort studies.

Study	Country	Design	Number of children	Timing of PAE assessment	Validation of PAE	Comparisons	Depression diagnostic methods	No. of offspring with depression	Average age of children at diagnosis	Variables adjusted/matched
Hill 2000 [16]	USA	RC	150	8–18 years after delivery	Self-reported	Moderate-heavy versus abstinent-light PAE	K-SADS	NR	11	Maternal age, maternal smoking, SES, and parental ASPD
O’Connor 2006 [17]	USA	RC	42	1 year after delivery	Self-reported	Moderate-heavy versus abstinent-light PAE	PDS	10	5	Maternal age
Fryer 2007 [18]	USA	RC	69	About 10 years after delivery	Self-reported	Heavy versus no PAE	K-SADS	7	12	Age and sex of children and SES
O’Leary 2010 [19]	Australia	RC	1327	3 months after delivery	Self-reported	Heavy versus no PAE in first trimester	CBCL	35	8	Maternal age, ethnicity, parity, marital status, SES, smoking and illicit drug use during pregnancy, and postnatal anxiety and depression
Ware 2013 [20]	USA	RC	344	8–16 years after delivery	Self-reported	Heavy versus no PAE	CBCL	21	13	Maternal age, ethnicity, and sex of children
Silva 2015 [21]	Australia	RC	321	6–16 years after delivery	Self-reported	PAE versus no PAE	CBCL	68	13	Maternal age, child age, gender, SES, prematurity, low birth weight, parent anxiety, and depression
Easey 2020 [22]	UK	PC	4563	Within pregnancy	Self-reported	Heavy versus no PAE	CIS-R	NR	18	Maternal age, SES, homeownership, marital status, maternal education, gender, parity, maternal smoking, maternal illicit drug use, maternal depression, and partner alcohol use
Duko 2021 [23]	Australia	PC	1168	Within pregnancy	Self-reported	Heavy versus no PAE	BDI-Y	272	17	Maternal age, SES, marital status, ethnicity (race), parity, planned pregnancy, sex of child, history of maternal psychiatric disorder, maternal depression and smoking, preterm birth, birth weight, and paternal smoking status during pregnancy.

USA, United States of America; UK, United Kingdom; RC, retrospective cohort; PC, prospective cohort; PAE, perinatal alcohol exposure; K-SADS, Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia for School-Aged Children; PDS, Pictorial Depression Scale; CBCL, Child Behavior Checklist; CIS-R, Clinical Interview Schedule-Revised; BDI-Y, the Beck Depression Inventory for Youth; NR, not reported; SES, socioeconomic status; ASPD; parental antisocial personality disorder.