Estimating the effects of policies on infertility prevalence worldwide

Infertility has troubled millions of people worldwide while always being an ignored issue. The high cost of treatment or lack of services placed a barrier to the alleviation of infertility status. Governments play a significant role to promote infertility-related policies for better access to infertility services and comprehensive supports for infertile people.

Data of infertility status indicators and infertility-related policies in ten representative countries were collected. An infertility-related policy system was established, then classification and quantification were processed according to specific criteria, and different policy implementation patterns were identified. The effectiveness of specific infertility-related policy and various patterns on infertility prevalence relief between 1990 and 2017 were evaluated via generalized linear models and analyses of covariance for the first time.

Economic support policies would be less prioritized compared with social security policies, while economic support policy had a significant positive role in the decline of female infertility prevalence (β = -2·16, p = 0·042). In detail, insurance coverage and economic reward policies were crucial (β = -3·31, p = 0·031; β = -4·10, p = 0·025) with adjusted with covariates. The effect of economic support-oriented pattern was relatively better than other patterns for both male and female infertility prevalence relief. Nevertheless, the effectiveness of gradual-promotion pattern seemed preferable for male infertility prevalence relief while was similar with simultaneous-promotion pattern for females.

Our data-driven analysis revealed that insurance coverage and economic reward policies played the pivotal role in moderation of female infertility status. Economic support-oriented pattern and gradual-promotion pattern were preferable when promoting infertility-related policies.