Fertility Intention Among Chinese Reproductive Couples During the COVID-19 Outbreak: A Cross-Sectional Study

Frontiers in Public Health

article

Kun Chu¹  Ronghui Zhu³  Yi Zhang⁴  Wenjuan Pang⁴  Xu Feng⁴  Xiang Wang⁴  Cheng Wu³  Ningxia Sun⁴  Wen Li¹ 

[1] Center of Reproductive Medicine, Shanghai Key Laboratory of Embryo Original Diseases, International Peace Maternity and Child Health Hospital, School of Medicine, Shanghai Jiao Tong University;Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, PLA Rocket Force Characteristic Medical Center;Department of Military Health Statistics, Naval Medical University;Center of Reproductive Medicine, Second Affiliated Hospital of Naval Medical University

关键词: COVID-19;    fertility intention;    reproductive couple;    self-administered questionnaire;    cross-sectional study;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fpubh.2022.903183

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: Frontiers

【 摘 要 】

A decline in the fertility rate has been observed worldwide, which hampers social development severely. Given the impacts of COVID-19 on individuals and society, it is of great significance to investigate the fertility intention of reproductive couples under COVID-19. The convenience sampling method was used to obtain our study sample. The self-administered questionnaire included the following components: sociodemographic characteristics (age, residence, education, occupation, characteristics of the couples, and annual household income), reproductive history (parity, number of children, child gender, and duration of preparing pregnancy), and attitudes toward COVID-19, was distributed online via an applet of WeChat. The results showed that among 4,133 valid questionnaires, 1,091 had fertility intention before COVID-19, whereas 3,042 did not, indicating a fertility intention rate of 26.4% among participating couples. Of the 1,091 couples who had fertility intention before COVID-19, 520 (47.7%) were affected by the outbreak, whereas 571 (52.3%) were not. By multivariable logistic regression analysis, we further found that couples living in Hubei Province, the epicenter in China (OR 2.20, 95% CI 1.35–3.60), and couples who prepared for pregnancy longer before COVID-19 (OR 1.19, 95% CI 1.06–1.33) were more likely to change their fertility intention under the pandemic. In addition, most of the participants reported their fertility intention was affected by the inconvenience of seeking medical service under COVID-19. Therefore, more forms of medical services to provide convenience for patients might be effective ways to reverse the declined fertility intention rate in facing COVID-19.

【 授权许可】

CC BY