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The prevalence of infertility in American Indian/Alaska Natives and other racial/ethnic groups: National Survey of Family Growth
Author(s) -
Craig LaTasha B.,
Peck Jennifer D.,
Janitz Amanda E.
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
paediatric and perinatal epidemiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.667
H-Index - 88
eISSN - 1365-3016
pISSN - 0269-5022
DOI - 10.1111/ppe.12538
Subject(s) - national survey of family growth , medicine , demography , fecundity , infertility , pacific islanders , confidence interval , ethnic group , poisson regression , population , gynecology , family planning , environmental health , pregnancy , research methodology , sociology , biology , anthropology , genetics
Background The prevalence of infertility in American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) populations is unknown. The objective of our study was to estimate the prevalence of infertility and impaired fecundity in the AI/AN population and other racial and ethnic groups. Methods We analyzed female respondent data from the pooled National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG) cycles 2002, 2006‐2010, and 2011‐2013. We used modified Poisson regression with robust error variance accounting for survey weighting to estimate prevalence proportion ratios (PPR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) for NSFG definitions of infertility and impaired fecundity by race and Hispanic ethnicity. Results The prevalence of infertility and impaired fecundity in the pooled NSFG was 6.4% (95% CI 5.7, 7.0) and 11.0% (95% CI 11.0, 12.2), respectively. Compared to whites, blacks had a 1.45 times greater adjusted prevalence of infertility (95% CI 1.15, 1.83) and AI/ANs had a 1.37 times greater prevalence of infertility (95% CI 0.91, 2.06) compared to whites. We observed a 1.30 times greater prevalence of impaired fecundity among AI/AN (95% CI 1.04, 1.62) compared to whites. We observed no differences in impaired fecundity for black or Asian/Pacific Islander women compared to whites or for Hispanic compared to non‐Hispanic women. Conclusions Inequalities in the burden of reproductive impairments among blacks and AI/AN women warrant further evaluation to identify opportunities for prevention and disparity reduction.