FRIDAY, March 26, 2004 (HealthDayNews) -- A new study puts a hefty price tag on caring for the victims of fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS), and that price is about 100 times higher than the cost of preventing the condition.
According to researchers, FAS accounts for more birth defects than Down syndrome, spina bifida and muscular dystrophy combined. About 40,000 children born in the United States each year are identified with FAS.
But since 95 percent of those with FAS go undiagnosed, there are many more affected each year, says lead researcher Dr. Larry Burd, director of the North Dakota Fetal Alcohol Center at the University of North Dakota School of Medicine and Health Sciences.
FAS can cause poor growth of the fetus and infant, decreased mental function, heart defects, abnormal facial appearance and deformity of the arms and legs. Other signs include delayed development, low IQ, and, in infants, tremors, agitation and crying.
Since there is no safe level of alcohol consumption, any drinking poses a risk for FAS. However, heavy drinking significantly increases the odds.
In their study, Burd's team reviewed studies that looked at the annual cost and the lifetime cost of caring for FAS victims.
They estimated the annual cost for all those with FAS at about $4 billion, and the lifetime cost for someone with FAS at about $3 million.
"If a state wanted to deposit in a bank enough money to take care of one of these people, they would need to deposit about $932,000, and the interest would pay for lifetime care," Burd says.
These costs include medical treatment, foster care, residential care due to mental retardation, special education services, incarceration and lost productivity.
By preventing just one case of FAS you could save almost $360,000 in the first 10 years and over $1 million over 30 years, they note.
Their findings appear in the March 22 issue of the American Journal of Medical Genetics.
"FAS is a preventable disorder," Burd says. "We are spending massive amounts of money on this problem, but we are spending very little money on prevention."
Right now, Burd says, there are too many women who are not screened for alcohol problems and too many who cannot get into alcohol treatment programs. "These women drink during pregnancy. Many of them have more than one affected child, because there is no money for prevention."
Burd believes that all pregnant women should be screened for alcohol use, and should be told to stop drinking. Women who can't stop need to be referred to an alcohol treatment program.
"The cost for treatment is less than 1 percent of what it is going to cost to take care of one affected child," he adds. "And that's just simply the money -- not the misery, the loss of a person and all the suffering."
Burd says women should not drink during pregnancy: "No amount of alcohol is safe."
"If we don't address this problem we are going to have at least 40,000 babies a year in the U.S. with preventable problems that we are going to take care of for the rest of their lives," Burd says.
"Nothing in this finding surprises me," says Dr. Susan Astley, an associate professor of epidemiology at the Center on Human Development and Disability and director of the Fetal Alcohol Syndrome Diagnostic and Prevention Network at the University of Washington.
"It's far more cost-effective to prevent FAS -- not only physically, but emotionally -- than to continue to intervene with the children after the damage has been done," Astley says.
The most effective prevention is treatment for women who are having problems with alcohol and birth control. "There's two ways to prevent FAS: one is the woman stops drinking; and the other is to avoid unplanned pregnancies," she adds.
Astley adds that FAS is not confined to low-income or certain racial groups. "Alcohol is an equal-opportunity teratogen [able to cause harm to the fetus]; it doesn't matter what race you are, what socioeconomic status you have, if you have a problem with alcohol, your child will be at risk for FAS."
More information
Learn about the disorder from the National Organization on Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, while the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism can tell you about preventing FAS.
