Date of Conferral

2020

Degree

Ph.D.

School

Public Health

Advisor

Jen Rothamel

Abstract

A global estimate indicates that over 70 million heterosexual married couples live with the burden of infertility, and Nigeria accounts for about 30%. Although protocols exist, it appears there are no standardized treatment guidelines for practicing fertility experts in Nigeria. This study, therefore, aimed to determine which protocol provides a better outcome across a given population of infertile women in Nigeria as a method to move towards developing standardized treatment guidelines. The study was grounded using the Patient-Centered Care Treatment Model, and the method of inquiry was a retrospective, cross-sectional, quantitative, and nonexperimental technique, and the influence of the patient’s socioeconomic status, age, education, ethnicity, medical condition on treatment outcome were examined. A 3-year secondary dataset of assisted reproductive technology was collected from 10 fertility centers covering the 6 geographical zones of Nigeria. A sample size of 605 women, aged 20 to 50 years, was used in this study. Descriptive and nonparametric, Wilcoxon rank-sum, Kruskal-Wallis, and Pearson’s correlation tests statistical analysis were performed. The Wilcoxon rank-sum test showed a statistically significant difference between long protocol (Median 8) and short protocol (Median 4). Also, there were statistically significant differences between the number of oocytes and patients’ characteristics such as; age, education, socioeconomic status, medical condition, ethnicity, and religion, at p < 0.05. The result demonstrated that long protocol was superior to the short protocol in terms of number and quality of oocytes yielded across the study population. The study findings serve as a guide for practicing fertility experts in Nigeria with the view to improve fertility treatment outcomes in women.

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