Ošetřovatelské perspektivy 2024, 7(2):39-52 | DOI: 10.25142/osp.2024.004

LITERACY OF FEMALE UNIVERSITY STUDENTS IN RELATION TO FERTILITY

Lucia Mazúchová1, Anna Krajčíková1
1 Ústav pôrodnej asistencie, Jesseniova lekárska fakulta v Martine, Univerzita Komenského v Bratislave

Introduction: Fertility literacy is the foundation for correct and informed decisions, as well as responsible access and care for reproductive health.

Aim: The aim of the study was to find out the fertility literacy of female college students.

Methodology: A quantitative cross sectional study design was chosen. A total of 311 female respondents with a mean age of 21.73 (± 1.88) participated in the study. A non-standardized self-designed questionnaire was used for data collection, which included questions focusing on the characteristics of the study population, knowledge, attitudes and awareness regarding fertility and fertility care. Descriptive and inductive statistics (Student’s t-test) were used for analysis.

Results: We found average knowledge (at 59.76%) regarding fertility. Positive attitudes towards fertility and its care were prevalent among majority of the female students. We observed statistically significant differences in attitudes between female medical and non-medical students (p = 0.02). The majority of female university students would like to have children, but the age at which they would like to have them was overestimated. Most of the female respondents subjectively felt partially informed about fertility and its care and more than one-third did not feel informed at all. Social networking sites were cited as the main source of information by respondents and only 18.04% by health professionals.

Conclusion: The results of the study indicate the need for increasing fertility literacy. Quality and widely available health education especially by health workers is essential to turn health knowledge into health literacy.

Keywords: literacy, attitudes, awareness, fertility, reproductive health, care, health professionals

Received: February 26, 2024; Revised: April 17, 2024; Accepted: June 6, 2024; Published: February 20, 2025  Show citation

ACS AIP APA ASA Harvard Chicago Chicago Notes IEEE ISO690 MLA NLM Turabian Vancouver
Mazúchová L, Krajčíková A. LITERACY OF FEMALE UNIVERSITY STUDENTS IN RELATION TO FERTILITY. Ošetřovatelské perspektivy. 2024;7(2):39-52. doi: 10.25142/osp.2024.004.
Share...
Download citation
  • BibTeX (.bib)
  • Bookends (.ris)
  • EasyBib (.ris)
  • EndNote (.enw)
  • EndNote 8 (.xml)
  • ISI WoS (.isi)
  • Medlars (.medlars)
  • Mendeley (.ris)
  • MODS (.xml)
  • Papers (.ris)
  • RefWorks (.txt)
  • RefManager (.ris)
  • RIS (.ris)
  • MS Word (.xml)
  • Zotero (.ris)
    • Open full article

    References

    1. ADAMS, S. H. et al. Association Between Adolescent Preventive Care and the Role of the Affordable Care Act. JAMA pediatrics [online]. 2018, vol. 172, no. 1, p. 43-48. [cit. 24. 1. 2024]. ISSN 2168-6211. DOI: 10.1001/jamapediatrics.2017.3140. Go to original source... Go to PubMed...
    2. ALMEIDA-SANTOS, T. et al. Are women and men well informed about fertility? Childbearing intentions, fertility knowledge and information-gathering sources in Portugal. Reproductive health [online]. 2017, vol. 14, no. 1. [cit. 13. 2. 2024]. ISSN 1742-4755. DOI: 10.1186/s12978-017-0352-z. Go to original source... Go to PubMed...
    3. BUNTING, L., TSIBULSKY, I. and BOIVIN, J. Fertility knowledge and beliefs about fertility treatment: findings from the International Fertility Decision-making Study. Human reproduction [online]. 2013, vol. 28, no. 2, p. 385-397. [cit. 26. 1. 2024]. ISSN 1460-2350. DOI: 10.1093/humrep/des402. Go to original source... Go to PubMed...
    4. DEHGHANKAR, L. et al. The association between sexual health literacy and sexual function of women in Iran. Journal of education and health promotion [online]. 2022, vol. 11, no. 1. [cit. 17. 1. 2024]. ISSN 2319-6440. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8893068/pdf/JEHP-11-11.pdf. Go to original source... Go to PubMed...
    5. DELBAERE, I. et al. Fertility awareness and parenthood intentions among medical students in three European countries. The European Journal of Contraception & Reproductive Health Care [online]. 2021, vol. 26, no. 4, p. 312-322. [cit. 14. 1. 2024]. ISSN 1473-0782. DOI: 10.1080/13625187.2021.1901877. Go to original source... Go to PubMed...
    6. DONGARWAR, D. and SALIHU, H. M. Influence of Sexual and Reproductive Health Literacy on Single and Recurrent Adolescent Pregnancy in Latin America. Journal of pediatric and adolescent gynecology [online]. 2019, vol. 32, no. 5, p. 506-513. [cit. 14. 2. 2024]. ISSN 1873-4332. DOI: 10.1016/j.jpag.2019.06.003. Go to original source... Go to PubMed...
    7. GRILO, S. A. et al. Confidentiality Discussions and Private Time With a Health-Care Provider for Youth, United States, 2016. The Journal of adolescent health [online]. 2019, vol. 64, no. 3, p. 311-318. [cit. 25. 1. 2024]. ISSN 1879-1972. DOI: 10.1016/j.jadohealth.2018.10.301. Go to original source... Go to PubMed...
    8. HALLERAN, M., CHERNOFF, A. and GORDON, J. L. Fertility Knowledge Among Women Struggling to Conceive Without Medical Intervention: A Brief Report. Frontiers in global women's health [online]. 2022, vol. 3. [cit. 24. 1. 2024]. ISSN 2673-5059. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8873180/pdf/fgwh-03-828052.pdf. Go to original source... Go to PubMed...
    9. HAMPTON, K. D. and NEWTON, J. M. Assisting women to conceive: a clinical update on fertility-awareness. Australian nursing & midwifery journal [online]. 2016, vol. 24, no. 1, p. 24-26. [cit. 23. 1. 2024]. ISSN 2207-1512. DOI: 10.3316/informit.161863065545580. Go to original source...
    10. CHAWŁOWSKA, E. et al. Reproductive Health Literacy and Fertility Awareness Among Polish Female Students. Frontiers in public health [online]. 2020, vol. 8. [cit. 24. 1. 2024]. ISSN 2296-2565. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7516014/pdf/fpubh-08-00499.pdf. Go to original source... Go to PubMed...
    11. KHALIL, N. S., HASSAN, I. T. and SAEED, H. D. Fertility Awareness among Medical and Non- medical Undergraduate University Students in Al-Iraqia University, Baghdad, Iraq. American Journal of Medical Sciences and Medicine [online]. 2015, vol. 3, no. 6, p. 74-78. [cit. 31. 3. 2023]. ISSN 2327-6657. Available from: https://portal.arid.my/Publications/65560ad7-4fbb-46ed-97ea-4b1301119afa.pdf.
    12. KILFOYLE, K. A. et al. Health Literacy and Women's Reproductive Health: A Systematic Review. Journal of women's health [online]. 2016, vol. 25, no. 12, p. 1237-1255. [cit. 23. 1. 2024]. ISSN 1931-843X. DOI: 10.1089/jwh.2016.5810. Go to original source... Go to PubMed...
    13. LEE, M. I wish I had known sooner: stratified reproduction as a consequence of disparities in infertility awareness, diagnosis, and management. Women & health [online]. 2019, vol. 59, no. 10, p. 1185-1198. [cit. 25. 1. 2024]. ISSN 1541-0331. DOI: 10.1080/03630242.2019.1593283. Go to original source... Go to PubMed...
    14. MAZÚCHOVÁ, L., LIETAVCOVÁ, G. a KELČÍKOVÁ, S. Starostlivosť o plodnosť ako významný aspekt reprodukčného zdravia žien. In: Zdravie 2022: zborník vedeckých prác z medzinárodnej vedeckej konferencie konanej dňa 7.-8. septembra 2022 v Banskej Bystrici. Bratislava: Slovenská zdravotnícka univerzita, 2022, s. 215-224. ISBN 978-80-8278-008-9.
    15. NOURI, K. et al. Fertility awareness among medical and non-medical students: a case-control study. Reproductive biology and endocrinology [online]. 2014, vol. 12, no. 1. [cit. 13. 2. 2024]. ISSN 1477-7827. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4182859/pdf/12958_2014_Article_1264.pdf. Go to original source... Go to PubMed...
    16. ODPHP. Reproductive and Sexual Health [online]. 2020. [cit. 23. 1. 2024]. Available from: https://www.healthypeople.gov/2020/leading-health-indicators/2020-lhi-topics/Reproductive-and-Sexual-Health.
    17. PEDRO, J. et al. What do people know about fertility? A systematic review on fertility awareness and its associated factors. Upsala journal of medical sciences [online]. 2018, vol. 123, no. 2, p. 71-81. [cit. 25. 1. 2024]. ISSN 2000-1967. DOI: 10.1080/03009734.2018.1480186. Go to original source... Go to PubMed...
    18. PRIOR, E. et al. Fertility facts, figures and future plans: an online survey of university students. Human fertility [online]. 2019, vol. 22, no. 4, p. 283-290. [cit. 13. 2. 2024]. ISSN 1742-8149. DOI: 10.1080/14647273.2018.1482569. Go to original source... Go to PubMed...
    19. SØRENSEN, N. O. et al. Fertility awareness and attitudes towards parenthood among Danish university college students. Reproductive health [online]. 2016, vol. 13, no. 1. [cit. 13. 2. 2024]. ISSN 1742-4755. Available from: https://reproductive-health-journal.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s12978-016-0258-1.pdf. Go to original source... Go to PubMed...
    20. WHO. Family planning/contraception methods [online]. 2020. [cit. 23. 1. 2024]. Available from: https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/family-planning-contraception.

    This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0), which permits use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original publication is properly cited. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.


    Return to the content