Evaluation of Iranian College Students’ Awareness about Infertility Risk Factors

Background: With technological developments, creation of new industries, and changing human behavior and lifestyles, several new infertility risk factors (IRFs) are discovered annually. Although many studies have been conducted on IRFs, no research has yet been carried out on the awareness of Iranian college students about the many IRFs. Objectives: Since prevention of infertility in a society is directly related to awareness about infertility, in the present study the awareness of male and female college students about IRFs was evaluated and compared at Jami institute of technology. Patients and Methods: For this purpose, a survey questionnaire containing 24 factors related to IRFs was developed and 123 college students from Jami institute of technology completed it. All data was extracted from these questionnaires and was statistically analyzed. Results: The results showed that both male and female participants had moderate awareness (55.86%) about IRFs. Female participants had significantly more awareness about the effects of cell phone radiation, fast food, and stress in comparison with their male counterparts. However, significantly higher numbers of male participants knew that smoking has negative effects on fertility. Generally, the awareness of females about IRFs was greater than that of males (59.46% vs. 52.27%). Conclusions: College students have a considerable knowledge gap relating to infertility risk factors, which could be due to the lack of a suitable module on IRFs in the curricula of Iranian universities. Generally, females have more awareness than males. The greatest awareness about IRFs concerned smoking, which may result from widespread media coverage.