Assessing sugar-sweetened beverage consumption in early pregnancy using a substance abuse framework

Sugar-sweetened beverages (SSB) are previously reported to jeopardize maternal fetal health, most well-known for gestational diabetes, childhood obesity, and cognitive impairment. Although warnings and diet recommendations urge pregnant women to consume less SSB, there is no noticeable difference in their behavior. How and why reproductive women change their SSB consumption patterns were not investigated previously. Our study aims to investigate beverage consumption patterns and how these patterns change in pregnancy in the context of substance use disorder (SUD). We invited all pregnant women visiting the clinic to answer a structured 20-min questionnaire every trimester during the regular antennal visit. At the end of the study, 337 pregnant women aged over 20 participated. A total of 301 responses entered for final analysis, with a response rate of 89.3%. Our finding showed those with high DSM-5-TR scores reduced SSB intake after becoming pregnant, while those with mild or low DSM-5-TR scores increased SSB intake after becoming pregnant. The top 3 factors related to their SSB consumption were “use despite of known health hazard (n = 133)”, “increased desire to drink (n = 88)”, and “excessive time spent on seeking SSB (n = 85)”. The least reported factors were in the domains of social impairment (ranging from n = 3 to n = 26), pharmacologic effects (i.e., tolerance (n = 24) and withdrawal (n = 70). When participants reduced SSB consumption after becoming pregnant, their choice of beverages largely shifted to sugarless beverage but not much plain water. The result provided new insights in deciphering pregnant women’s psychomotor factors for SSB intake, which served as useful references for making clinical or even public health recommendations.