Gonen Limor Dina
Department of Economics and Business Administration, Ariel University, Ariel 40700, Israel.
Healthcare (Basel). 2021 May 9;9(5):554. doi: 10.3390/healthcare9050554.
The present study investigates fertility intentions of men, aged 18-59, as expressed in willingness to cryopreserve sperm for future use in procreation. An economic stated-preference framework is combined with the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) to investigate which attributes are important in the decision to cryopreserve sperm, what is the Willingness to Pay (WTP) for cryopreservation, and which attributes influence it. A structured, two-part questionnaire was used, based on WTP and Conjoint analysis (CA) applied in tandem to elicit respondents' preferences in evaluating utility. Findings show which attributes are important in the decision to cryopreserve sperm among them Risk of Infertility, Personal monthly income, Chance of pregnancy from frozen semen, Age and what are significant predictor variables for the WTP which are Personal monthly income, Importance of the risk of infertility, Initial registration fee to sperm bank and cryopreservation, and Degree of religious observance. The findings further demonstrate that respondents value sperm cryopreservation and have a positive WTP for it as it seems to contribute to improving well-being. As a result of these findings, governments should consider state funding for cryopreservation as part of national health policy.
本研究调查了18至59岁男性的生育意愿,具体表现为他们是否愿意冷冻精子以备未来生育之需。研究将经济陈述偏好框架与计划行为理论(TPB)相结合,以探究在冷冻精子决策中哪些属性至关重要、冷冻精子的支付意愿(WTP)是多少,以及哪些属性会对其产生影响。研究采用了一份结构化的两部分问卷,该问卷基于同时应用的支付意愿和联合分析(CA),以在评估效用时引出受访者的偏好。研究结果表明,在冷冻精子决策中重要的属性包括不孕风险、个人月收入、冷冻精液受孕几率、年龄等;而支付意愿的显著预测变量包括个人月收入、不孕风险的重要性、精子库和冷冻保存的初始注册费以及宗教遵守程度。研究结果进一步表明,受访者重视精子冷冻保存,并对其有积极的支付意愿,因为这似乎有助于改善幸福感。基于这些研究结果,政府应考虑将国家资金用于冷冻保存,作为国家卫生政策的一部分。