Awareness of Female Reproductive Aging among Undergraduate Students and Attitudes toward Parenthood

BACKGROUND- There is a trend towards delaying parenthood as a result of drive towards career attainment which is compounded by preponderance of economic hardship in deprived settings of the developing world, even though reproductive behaviour is mainly fertility oriented in these societies. OBJECTIVE - To find out awareness of reproductive aging and attitude towards parenthood among university undergraduate students METHODS - A cross sectional survey done between year 2010 and 2011 using pre tested self administered questionnaire. Study group were students from Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria and Kaduna Polytechnic, Kaduna. The respondents were divided into two cohort; medical students (MS) and non medical students (NMS). A total of 306 questionnaires were analysed; 103 for MS cohort and 203 for NMS cohort. RESULTS - Awareness on age related fertility decline reveal that age 20 to 24years was mostly viewed as most fertile age interval by 91.3% in the MS cohort while age 25 to 29 years was viewed as the most fertile age interval by 88.2% in the NMS cohort. In the MS cohort, age 35 to 39years was seen as the age interval of marked fertility decline by 90.3% of the 103 respondents while in the NMS cohort age 40years and above was mostly viewed as age of marked fertility decline in 85.2% of the 203 respondents. All (100%) respondents from both MS and NMS cohort have the desire to be parents in future with average number of children desired being 3.8 and 4.2 in the MS and NMS cohort respectively. A rate of 93.2% in the MS cohort and 97.5% in NMS cohort viewed parenthood as extremely important. However, desired age to have first child was 25 to 29years by 85.4% of 103 respondents in MS cohort and 30 to 35years by 89.2% of 203 respondents in the NMS cohort. CONCLUSION - Awareness on female reproductive aging is undoubtedly better among MS compared to NMS. Though attitude towards parenthood is high in both cohorts, interplay of variables towards improved livelihood will determine the commencement age of parenthood.