Drinking & congenital birth defects: alcohol awareness in the northern rivers region

Alcohol consumption has been identified as one of the leading aspect of social life in Australia. The purpose of this article as to develop guidelines in order to minimize risks associated with excess consumption of alcohol in Australia by changing the cultural attitudes and promoting the health of the Australian population.

This study, which was carried out in the semi-rural Northern Rivers in New South Wales, was conducted to enquire about the attitudes towards maternal drinking and awareness of the birth defects which are closely related to alcohol consumption of alcohol among women.

In the results, the study found out that 69.8% of the participants responded acknowledged that women should drink during pregnancy with increased trend favoring 4-8 glasses of beer ever week during pregnancy.

The study also found that education was negatively related to the recommended quantity of alcohol consumption but positively related to the respondent knowledge on alcohol-related birth defects. The study asserted that education was an important tool in bringing about an effective change in attitude and therefore it should be used to raise social awareness on maternal drinking issues.

Three main points

There are important points in this article. First, it is clear the alcohol consumption is one aspect of Australian culture. Alcohol consumption is an accepted social culture in Australia. However there are no cultural barriers that have been created to cushion negative effect of alcohol consumption

In my opinion, alcohol consumption is not only an acceptable culture in Australia but it is a major problem in the country.  Alcohol consumption forms one of the most important social leisure activities of Australian and therefore any negative consequence are likely to affect the people in a great way.

Second, there is low understanding of the effect of alcohol on the population. With 69.8% acknowledging the use of alcohol during pregnancy, it is clear that there is low level of awareness in the public on the effects of alcohol consumption. Increased birth defects in the country can therefore be attributed to alcohol consumption during pregnancy.

I feel that alcohol may have more negative effect on the Australians than many studies have projected. This is because these studies have focused on only one negative aspect of alcohol leaving out several other negative effects. There is a very low level of understanding on the effects of alcohol among the population which may have led to many negative health effects.

Third, changing cultural attitude on consumption of alcohol can play a pivotal role in changing the pattern of alcohol consumption in the country. This means the education can be used to increase public awareness on the effects of alcohol and change their attitude.

In my opinion, I feel that education can play an important role in changing the culture perception and attitude of the population about the effects of alcohol. It is very difficult to change cultural attitude since it is a part of life of these people. However education can increase the awareness of the population on negative effects of alcohol

There is no bias in the article. The article fairly looks into the issue and carries out am alcohol survey with informed consent and assurance of confidential in the research process with voluntary participation. In the selection process both males and female were selected according to demographic of the area.

The writer

This article was published following as study carried out by Tony Yeigh who holds a bachelor of psychology and post graduate diploma in education, and Brian Kean who is a Ph.D. holder, both from Brigham Young University in the department of Heath science. I believe with what these authors say on the low level of awareness of the effects of alcohol on the Australian population. This is because the same result have been found in other studies by the National Alcohol Strategy 2001-2003 and also by NSW Alcohol Summit 2003