Factors that influence infertile couples’ selection of reproductive medicine centers---A cross-sectional questionnaire study

Abstract

Objective: The number of infertile women undergoing in vitro fertilization (IVF) cycles has increased annually. Due to this competitive environment, we designed a questionnaire and aimed to investigate factors affecting the choice of reproductive medicine center among infertile couples. Materials and methods: This was a retrospective cross-sectional study that analyzed questionnaires provided by the reproductive medicine center of the Kaohsiung Veterans General Hospital from January 2018 to June 2018. In the questionnaire, there are six categories (environment and equipment, service quality, patient safety, medical quality, information acquisition channel and other) and 36 items. The identified factors were scored and then weighted using principal component analysis. Results: Most of the 100 identified infertile women were aged 31–35 years, were married 1–3 years, and had a university education level. In the weight analysis, “Clean outpatient clinic and medical equipment” had the greatest weight in the dimension of environment and equipment. The item with the greatest weight in the dimension of service quality was “Waiting time for registration, charging, and receiving medicine”. In the dimension of patient safety, “Privacy is highly respected by medical personnel” had the highest weight. The item with the greatest weight in the dimension of medical quality was “Success rate of reproductive medicine center”. The three items with the highest weights in the dimension of information acquisition channel were “Newspapers and magazines”, “TV media”, and “Facebook page and website of our hospital”. In the other dimensions, the two with the greatest weights were “Reputation of the hospital” and “Reputation of physicians”. Conclusion: In the infertile couples' view, optimal reproductive medicine centers should have a high success rate and great reputation on the internet and in mass media. Additionally, a short waiting time and high levels of privacy and confidentiality are also imperative. Keywords: Choice, Infertile couples, Questionnaire, Reproductive medicine centers, Selection