2/2 Collaboration to Establish the Prevalence and Characteristics of FASD in U.S. Communities: Continuation of the CoFASP Initiative

ABSTRACT The Collaboration of Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders Prevalence (CoFASP) initiative was launched by NIAAA in 2010 to establish reasonable, reproducible, and generalizable estimates of the prevalence and characteristics of fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD) within defined regional communities of the USA. With this proposal, the Fetal Alcohol Epidemiology Research (FASER) Team investigators, coordinated from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, will continue to collaborate with investigators from the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) and NIAAA advisors to complete the specific aims of CoFASP. We will collaborate and produce specific products called for in the new RFA AA-16-007. Under continuing specific aims of CoFASP, FASER collaborators will accomplish the following two aims: 1.) Using criteria agreed upon by CoFASP participants 2012-2015, we will complete all sample data, analyses, and co-authored manuscripts on the prevalence and characteristics of FASD and maternal risk factors for FASD. The data come from nine independent samples collected by the FASER Team from five different communities in three different states of the USA. We will deliver all of the data to the UCSD Data Analysis Coordination Unit (DACU) for future analyses and publications. 2.) We will complete: a.) the detailed study samples of maternal nutrition with the Nutrition Data System for Research (NDSR) at FASER sites and b.) the anthropometric study and growth curves of anatomical features essential to the accurate diagnosis of the FASD continuum in children birth - 18 years of age and provide the data to the DACU. 3.) To accomplish new RFA-driven specific aims, we will: a.) collaborate to deliver a timeline and outline of study protocols used to calculate prevalence estimates at each site; b.) complete a co-authored manuscript detailing the final sampling, diagnostic, and robust, analytic methodology for establishing accurate, transparent, site-based prevalence rates in a general population; c.) provide comparisons of how other FASD diagnostic criteria and approaches (e.g. ICD-10, Canadian system, ND-PAE, and clinical judgement) affect diagnosis and prevalence rates of FASD and which approaches mesh most closely with the empirical data generated in the CoFASP studies; d.) clarify the contribution that growth makes to FAS and other FASD; and e.) collaborate for effective completion and dissemination of results through multiple, refereed publications and presentations.