ABSTRACT
Alcohol is an addictive substance, consumed by 43% of the adult population globally in 2016. Alcohol consumption causes health, social, and economic harms to individuals who drink, their families and others within their social networks, as well as to strangers. At a global level, alcohol is one of the leading risk factors for the global burden of disease, resulting in 3 million deaths in 2016 (5.3% of all deaths), affects the risk of numerous diseases and injuries, and has been related to communicable and noncommunicable diseases. Exposure to alcohol and the resulting harms show large geographically and sex-based disparities, indicating that a large proportion of the burden of disease and injury could be prevented through the implementation of public health policies and brief interventions by family physicians directed at individuals who consume harmful amounts of alcohol. In particular, alcohol consumption causes a disproportionate amount of harm to young persons in age and persons of lower socioeconomic statuses. Given global increases in alcohol consumption among women, consumption during their childbearing years and pregnancy is of particular concern. Accordingly, this chapter outlines alcohol consumption and the resulting harms (including fetal alcohol spectrum disorder) among women of childbearing age (15–49 years).
