Swedish high school students' knowledge and attitudes regarding fertility and family building

Abstract

BackgroundInfertility is a serious problem for those who suffer. Some of the risks for infertility are preventable and the individual should therefore have knowledge of them. The purposes of this study were to investigate high-school students' knowledge about fertility, plans for family building and to compare views and knowledge between female and male students.MethodsA questionnaire containing 34 items was answered by 274 students. Answers from male and female students were compared using student's t-test for normally distributed variables and Mann-Whitney U-test for non-normal distributions. The chi-square test was used to compare proportions of male and female students who answered questions on nominal and ordinal scales. Differences were considered as statistically significant at a p-value of 0.05.ResultsAnalyses showed that 234 (85%) intended to have children. Female students felt parenthood to be significantly more important than male students: p = <0.01. The mean age at which the respondents thought they would like to start to build their family was 26 (± 2.9) years. Men believed that women's fertility declined significantly later than women did: p = <0.01. Women answered that 30.7% couples were involuntarily infertile and men answered 22.5%: p = <0.01. Females thought it significantly more likely that they would consider IVF or adoption than men, p = 0.01. Men felt they were more likely to abstain from having children than women: p = <0.01. Women believed that body weight influenced fertility significantly more often than men: p = <0.01 and men believed significantly more often that smoking influenced fertility: p = 0.03. Both female and male students answered that they would like to have more knowledge about the area of fertility.ConclusionsYoung people plan to start their families when the woman's fertility is already in decline. Improving young people's knowledge about these issues would give them more opportunity to take responsibility for their sexual health and to take an active role in shaping political change to improve conditions for earlier parenthood.

Awareness, knowledge, and perceptions of infertility, fertility assessment, and assisted reproductive technologies in the era of oocyte freezing among female and male university students

“…This observation is in accordance with the BInternational Fertility Decision-making Study^and other studies that observed a modest level of fertility knowledge of participants and that participants overestimated the age at which a women's ability to become pregnant first declines, the chance to become pregnant under optimal conditions and the chance of conception after IVF [12,18,19,25,27,33,34]. Our study might have overstated knowledge gaps for some questions.…”

“…As an example, BAt what age is there a slight decrease in women's ability to become pregnant,^only those who responded age 27-29 were deemed to be correct. We based the correct answer on published information [12,27,29,34], but it could be argued that those who said 30-34 years [35] were also correct and certainly do not represent a concern in terms of having inadequate knowledge. That would bring the proportion of participants who were aware that a woman's fertility declines in her early 30s to almost 80 %, which could be interpreted as reassuring.…”

Effectiveness of a video intervention on fertility knowledge among university students: a randomised pre-test/post-test study

“…Most young adults aim to become parents 1 . However, this life goal might not be available in the future to a significant proportion of them, who will face difficulties in conceiving.…”

Knowledge and perception of medical students about infertility

“…A szerző ezt a tendenciát azzal magyarázza, hogy a téma előtérbe helyezésével a gyakoriságra vonatkozó becslések önmagukban is nö-vekednek, mivel a válaszadók fontosnak értékelik a kutatás puszta ténye miatt a jelenséget, így annak gyakoriságát is felülértékelik. Ekelin és mtsai [26] kutatásukban szintén hasonló eredményeket írnak le.…”