More than one-third of the included studies (n = 9, 34.6%) used T-ACE (positive/ scores ≥ 2) [55, 58, 61, 64, 66, 67, 72, 75], followed by timeline follow back (TLFB) used in seven (26.9%) studies [55, 57, 64–66, 69, 77], and six (23.1%) studies that used the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT-10) [56, 65, 70, 71, 74, 77] for screening alcohol use among pregnant women (Additional File 3). This evidence concerns the gene ACE and alcohol abuse.