A new method of prenatal alcohol classification accounting for dose, pattern, and timing of exposure: Improving our ability to examine fetal effects from low to moderate alcohol.

BACKGROUND:When examining the association between prenatal alcohol exposure and fetal effects, the timing and intensity of exposure have been ignored in epidemiological studies. The effect of using dose, pattern and timing of consumption ("composite" method) was investigated in this study, to examine the association between prenatal alcohol exposure and fetal effects.METHODS:The composite method resulted in six categories of exposure (abstinent, low, moderate, binge