[Alcohol drinking in parents and its relation with intellectual score of their children]

Among children living in orphanages of the Metropolitan Region, the paternal alcohol ingestion patterns were investigated. According to abnormal parental alcohol ingestion, a sample of 291 children was studied, of whom 32% were living in simple protection homes for infants with normal intellectual coefficient and 52% in homes for mentally retarded boys. There was a higher frequency and intensity of abnormal alcohol ingestion among parents of infants living in homes for the mentally retarded. Among these, 29% of mothers were illiterate and 11% had incomplete primary school education compared to mothers of simple protection homes in whom the frequency of illiteracy was 10% and of incomplete primary education, 50%. Twenty percent of fathers of children living in homes for the mentally retarded were unemployed, 16% had occasional jobs and 11% had a stable work; these numbers were 11, 30 and 15% respectively for fathers of simple protection homes. Among infants living in homes for the mentally retarded, undernutrition was found in 44%, growth retardation in 51% and microcephaly in 34% compared to 33, 30 and 11% in children living in simple protection homes. Sixteen percent of the sample had fetal alcohol syndrome, 24% among those living in homes for the mentally retarded and 12% in simple protection homes. There was an inverse relationship between offspring intellectual coefficient and the number of drinking parents.