Prevalence of Foetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders: A pilot study in Western Sweden

A pilot study conducted at the University of Gothenburg estimating the prevalence of foetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD) in Sweden. The results indicate that birth defects caused by alcohol consumption during pregnancy may be as common in Sweden as in several other European countries.
The study ran at six schools in western Sweden and constituted an add-on to the regular health check-up for all fourth-grade students. The participants underwent a physical examination, review of medical records and psychological tests of memory, attention, and problem-solving ability. Parents and teachers described the children’s behavior and school performance, and the mothers were interviewed about their dietary habits and alcohol consumption during pregnancy.
Of the 206 participants examined, fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD) were found in 19 children. Ten had alcohol-related neurobehavioral disorder, four had partial fetal alcohol syndrome, and five had the most severe variant, fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS). The overall prevalence of FASD in the study group was 5.5%, of which 2.4% had FAS.
The lowest prevalence estimate of FASD in Sweden is similar to that found in other European countries, and four orders of magnitude more common than the prevalence of the diagnosis in official hospital records. The authors argue that a screening procedure for large-scale studies may utilise both behavioural and anthropometric measures, including head circumference, depending on the objective.
Source: Landgren, V., Knez, R., Karlsson, D., Fernmo, S., Johnson, M., Svensson, L. and Landgren, M. (2025), Prevalence of Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders: A Pilot Study in Western Sweden. Acta Paediatr.