Authors: Mumuni K, Sackey AT, Swarray-Deen A, Sefogah PE.
Introduction: Infertility is highly prevalent (30%) in sub-Saharan Africa where high value is placed on childbirth and children considered a form of social insurance for parents’ old age. Infertility causes stigma, marital instability and significant psycho-emotional distress.
Objective: To assess the awareness and perceptions of university students in Ghana regarding infertility.
Methods: This cross-sectional multi-centre study involved administration of pretested online survey on various aspects of male and female infertility to students from two largest public universities in Ghana. Medical and Nursing students were excluded. Data was entered into Microsoft excel spreadsheet, cleaned and analysed with SPSS-22. Associations between participants’ sociodemography and knowledge on infertility tested, multilogistic regression analysis done, p<0.05 considered significant.
Results: Overall, 400 tertiary students participated in the study, mostly (78.5%) aged between 19 – 25years, with majority 51% being females and 49% males (p < 0.001) and 82% (331/400) undergraduates. Only 37.3% (149/400) of participants correctly knew infertility is diagnosed following failure to conceive for one year; 86.5% (n=346) knew infertility resulted from male and female causes; and 53.8% knew being overweight or obese contributed to infertility. Participants named these causes of infertility: long-term oral contraceptive use (60.3%, n=241); previous abortion (96.0%, n=348); vaginal/pelvic infection (83.2%, n=333), pelvic surgery (74.0%, n=296), wearing high-heel shoes (21.5%, n=91); alcohol (64.0%, n=256), smoking (60.7%, n=243); males having multiple sexual partners 21.5% (n=91); witchcraft or evil spirits 20%, n=80). 78% participants knew there are infertility treatment options available but 67% (n=262) considered the treatment costs as expensive; 18.7% indicated assisted reproductive technology (ART) results in normal children, but 17.9% feared ART causes genetic mental disorder, unhealthy children and premature death.
Conclusion: University students in Ghana have limited knowledge on what constitutes infertility but moderate awareness on causes and treatments of infertility. In their view, infertility treatment is available but expensive, with ART believed to result in genetic mental disorder and premature deaths.
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