Behavioural methods for assessing alcohol dependence of pregnant women

Introduction:
The problem of alcohol abuse also affects pregnant women, who often conceal the fact that they drink alcohol during pregnancy. The WHO recommends standardized screening tests for diagnosing alcohol abuse and dependence, e.g. the CAGE test, T-ACE test, and TWEAK test. These tests are an easy, non-invasive, quick way to detect pregnant women from the risk group addicted to ethyl alco-hol. The aim of the study is to evaluate behavioural methods used to diagnose the alcohol problem of pregnant women, as well as to assess which of the tests (CAGE test, the T-ACE test, or the TWEAK test) is most sensitive and specific in research on the diagnosis of alcoholism among pregnant women in Poland.

Results:
Based on the survey, it was found that 85% of the respondents drank alcohol before pregnancy, while 26% (39) of the respondents continued to drink alcohol during pregnancy. A positive result of the CAGE test was obtained in 56% of the 39 women who declared that they drank alcohol during pregnancy and in 13% of the respondents who concealed their drinking of alcohol during pregnancy. A positive result of the T-ACE test was obtained in 39% of subjects who admitted to drinking during pregnancy and in 11% of preg-nant women who did not admit to it. A positive result of the TWEAK test in the study group was read in 33% of 106 respondents who denied drinking alcohol during pregnancy and in 74% of pregnant women who consumed alcohol.

Conclusions:
The CAGE, TWEAK, and T-ACE tests differ in sensitivity, specificity, validity, PPV, and NPV; therefore, they should be used to diag-nose different alcohol problems. The study of women’s alcohol dependence should be based on several tests evaluating alcohol de-pendence. Implementation of alcohol abuse screening tests in the prenatal care of pregnant women will allow the identification of patients with alcohol problems who do not admit to drinking alcohol.