Determining the need for fertility care and the acceptability and feasibility of administering a fertility awareness tool from the user’s perspective in a sample of Sudanese infertility patients

Bayoumi, R. R., Koert, E., Van der Poel, S. and Boivin, J ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9498-1708 2021. Determining the need for fertility care and the acceptability and feasibility of administering a fertility awareness tool from the user’s perspective in a sample of Sudanese infertility patients. Reproductive Biomedicine and Society Online 13 , pp. 85-97. 10.1016/j.rbms.2021.06.004

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Abstract

Fertility experts have advocated addressing preventable causes of infertility and early intervention. However, awareness of risk factors is low, especially in low- and middle-income countries where the prevalence of infertility is high. To address this lack of awareness, the Fertility Awareness Tool (FertiSTAT) was adapted for use in Sudan and other low-resource countries. The aims of this study were to ascertain the need for fertility education in Sudan (Aim 1), and to gauge the acceptability and feasibility of implementing the FertiSTAT in Sudan (Aim 2), both from the patients’ perspective. Convenience sampling was used to recruit participants for semi-structured-in-depth interviews from a fertility clinic in Sudan. We collected sociodemographic information, medical and reproductive history, asked about fertility knowledge, administered the FertiSTAT and asked about the acceptability of the FertiSTAT. Thematic analysis was conducted for qualitative data. Twenty participants were included; of these, 17 were female, 13 were educated beyond secondary school, the mean age was 32.8 years, and the mean duration of infertility was 4.1 years. Ten themes emerged: of these, three themes addressed Aim 1: ‘desire for fertility information’, ‘state of fertility knowledge’ and ‘benefits of fertility education’; and seven themes addressed Aim 2: ‘specific suggestions for the tool’, ‘factors influencing the acceptability and feasibility of implementing the tool’, ‘challenges and barriers to implementation’, ‘self-disclosure’, ‘understanding of being at risk’, ‘compatibility with worldview’ and ‘cultural tailoring’. Fertility education was viewed as necessary and beneficial; however, participants thought that lack of acceptability of sensitive topics would hinder the implementation of the FertiSTAT. Acceptability and feasibility would be enhanced if challenges were addressed in a culturally sensitive manner using cultural tailoring of materials to increase compatibility with individual worldviews.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Psychology
Additional Information:	This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
Publisher:	Elsevier
ISSN:	2405-6618
Funders:	ESRC
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	30 April 2021
Date of Acceptance:	28 April 2021
Last Modified:	06 Nov 2024 12:30
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/140882

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