Prevalence of binge drinking during pregnancy by country and World Health Organization region: Systematic review and meta-analysis

The objective was to obtain the first ever estimates of the prevalence of binge drinking (defined as four or more standard drinks per occasion) during pregnancy among the general population by country and World Health Organization region. A comprehensive systematic literature search was conducted, followed by country-specific random-effects meta-analyses for those countries with two or more empirical studies. For the remaining countries, the prevalence was predicted via a multilevel fractional response regression model, using country-specific indicators. Regional averages were then estimated. Lastly, the proportion of pregnant women who binge drank during pregnancy out of all women who used any amount of alcohol during pregnancy was estimated for each country. The African Region was estimated to have the highest prevalence of binge drinking during pregnancy, while the Western Pacific Region had the lowest estimated prevalence. The findings indicate that a large portion of pregnancies that are alcohol exposed are being exposed to the most detrimental pattern of drinking - binge drinking.