FACT: a tool to measure college students' knowledge about the effects of alcohol on pregnancy.

What is it about?

Alcohol consumption during pregnancy can lead to various problems in the fetus, collectively known as fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD), ranging from fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) to neurocognitive and behavioral developmental disorders. Despite these negative outcomes, alcohol consumption during pregnancy is common in Brazil as well as in many other places worldwide. To further investigate the aspects surrounding this topic, we developed a self-reported questionnaire to measure college students' knowledge about the effects of alcohol on pregnancy. The questionnaire was called the Fetal Alcohol Consequences Test (FACT) and consists of 12 statements covering the main aspects of the subject. We conducted a psychometric assessment of the FACT questionnaire using a sample of 768 Brazilian university students. We found that, apparently, Brazilian college students have higher knowledge about the topic than other population groups. Furthermore, we identified some sociodemographic factors associated with greater knowledge: female gender, age between 41 and 50 years old, being married, women with previous pregnancies, having living children, having attended private high schools, and being a student in the Health Sciences field.

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Photo by freestocks on Unsplash

Photo by freestocks on Unsplash

Why is it important?

College students are one group with high rates of alcohol consumption. Often, this consumption is associated with risky sexual behaviors, such as unprotected sex. In this scenario, the chances of unplanned pregnancy in this population are significant. Developing a tool to measure this population's knowledge about the topic is an interesting starting point for both identifying knowledge gaps and building public policies aimed at this target population.

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