Fertility decision of Iranian women during the COVID-19 pandemic and home quarantine: A cross-sectional study in Iran

Abstract

BackgroundFertility decision is defined as the mutual decision of partners toward having children, which may be equally controlled by the two partners or dominantly powered by the female partner. This study aimed to evaluate fertility decision of women during the COVID-19 pandemic in Iran.MethodsThis cross-sectional study was conducted on 600 women (300 pregnant and 300 non-pregnant) during the COVID-19 pandemic. A demographic questionnaire and the Attitudes toward Fertility and Childbearing Scale were used to collect the data. Independent t-test, Chi-square test, and logistic regression were used for analyzing data.ResultsThe mean ± SD age of participants with negative and positive attitude toward fertility was 28.96 ± 5.88 and 28.39 ± 6.2, respectively. Almost half of the studied women postponed their pregnancy to after the pandemic. The total score of fertility decision in women with positive attitudes toward fertility was 95.43 ± 18.51 compared to 46.73 ± 17.2 in women with negative attitudes toward fertility (p < 0.0001). None-employed women had 0.595 times the odds of having a positive attitude toward fertility (95% CI: 0.423–0.836). Women who were not pregnant had 1.5 times the odds of having a positive attitude toward childbearing (95% CI: 1.067–2.112). In addition, women who were not hospitalized during the pandemic had 0.520 times the odds of having a positive attitude toward fertility (95% CI: 0.342–0.790).ConclusionThe results of this study showed that half of the women postponed their pregnancy to after the pandemic. Also, employed women, women who were not pregnant, and women who were not hospitalized during pandemic were more likely to have positive attitudes toward fertility during the COVID-19 pandemic. Policymakers should devise some strategies to clarify the benefits and harms of pregnancy during crises such as COVID-19 pandemic.

Childcare burden and changes in fertility desires of mothers during the COVID-19 pandemic

“…Nevertheless, our results are in line with previous studies covering more diverse populations 6,7,9,19,21 . Second, this is a cross-sectional study which examined changes in fertility desires due to the COVID-19 pandemic but did not test the actual fertility behaviour.…”

“…Furthermore, we also found that greater COVID exposure was associated with a decline in a desired number of children. In line with this, one study from Iran found that those women who were hospitalized during the pandemic had lower odds of having positive attitudes towards fertility 21 . One possible explanation for these findings is that women who were exposed to the SARS-CoV-2 infection might be more fearful about negative consequences of the virus on their and fetal health compared to those women who were not exposed to the SARS-CoV-2 infection.…”

“…Also, those individuals who expected an insecure future income due to the pandemic were more likely to modify their fertility plans 7 . Lastly, non-employed women had more negative attitudes towards fertility during the pandemic 21 .…”

“…Our third aim was, whether COVID-related stress moderated the relationship between childcare burden and fertility desires. Based on the previous studies [19][20][21] , we hypothesized that COVID-19 exposure and higher COVID-related stress will be associated with decreased fertility desires. Finally, we also studied whether mothers whose fertility desires changed because of the pandemic differed in socio-demographic characteristics compared to mothers whose fertility desires did not change.…”

Report on fraying resilience among the Ontario Registered Practical Nurse Workforce in long‐term care homes during COVID‐19

“…In their original research, 80 was established as a cut‐off score from a sample that contained a “community sample, primary care outpatients, general psychiatric outpatients, clinical trial of generalized anxiety disorder, and two clinical trials of PTSD” (Connor & Davidson, 2003 , p. 1). More recent work has established a mean score of 73% on the CD‐RISC‐25 for nurses working in intensive care units in New Zealand (Yu et al, 2019 ), 71% for nurses working in Iran responding to the COVID‐19 pandemic (Afshari et al, 2021 ), and 52% in an American sample of nurses working in LTC (Lin et al, 2021 ). Connor and Davidson ( 2003 ) have reported the Cronbach's alpha of the CD‐RISC‐25 scale to be 0.89, with a reliability coefficient of 0.87 reported for this scale through test–retest reliability in a four‐week interval (Connor & Davidson, 2003 ).…”