Factors that infertile couples from mainland China may take into consideration for cross-border reproductive care - A cross-sectional questionnaire study

Abstract

Objective: Cross-border reproductive care (CBRC) has become popular in the world, including mainland China. We designed a questionnaire and aimed to determine the main factors that infertile couples from mainland China may consider for CBRC.

Materials and methods: In this cross-sectional questionnaire-based study, we retrospectively analyzed the data from questionnaires collected at the Reproductive Center of Beijing BaoDao Obstetrics and Gynecology Hospital from January 2018 to June 2018. The questionnaire contained 38 items that belonged to six different categories (environment and equipment, service quality, patient safety, medical quality, information acquisition channel and overseas medical services). The item scores for each factor were calculated and then weighted using principal component analysis.

Results: A total of 297 infertile couples were identified. Most of the infertile women were aged 31-35 years, were married 1-3 years, and had a bachelor's degree. In the weighted factor analysis, "clean outpatient clinic and medical equipment" had the highest weight in the dimension of environment and equipment. The item with the highest weight in the dimension of service quality was "wait time for examination". In the dimension of patient safety, "health education on medication and surgery by counselors" had the highest weight. The item with the highest weight in the dimension of medical quality was "fee charged for ART treatment". The items with the three highest weights in the dimension of information acquisition channel were "other (seminar, exhibition, dissertation …)", "introduction from friends and relatives", and "telephone inquiry". In the dimension of overseas medical services, the two items with the highest weights were "cultural similarities" and "language similarities".

Conclusion: For CBRC, infertile couples from mainland China may take following significant factors into consideration: a high success rate and inexpensive treatment, cultural and linguistic familiarity, high-quality service and short wait time.

Keywords: Assisted reproductive technique; Cross-border reproductive care; Infertile couples; Mainland China; Questionnaire.