Estimating the effects of policies on infertility prevalence worldwide

BACKGROUND: Infertility has troubled millions of people worldwide while always being an ignored issue. The high cost of treatment or lack of services placed a barrier to the alleviation of infertility status. Governments play a significant role to promote infertility-related policies for better access to infertility services and comprehensive supports for infertile people. METHODS: Data of infertility status indicators and infertility-related policies in ten representative countries were collected. An infertility-related policy system was established, then classification and quantification were processed according to specific criteria, and different policy implementation patterns were identified. The effectiveness of specific infertility-related policy and various patterns on infertility prevalence relief between 1990 and 2017 were evaluated via generalized linear models and analyses of covariance for the first time. RESULTS: Economic support policies would be less prioritized compared with social security policies, while economic support policy had a significant positive role in the decline of female infertility prevalence (β = -2·16, p = 0·042). In detail, insurance coverage and economic reward policies were crucial (β = -3·31, p = 0·031; β = -4·10, p = 0·025) with adjusted with covariates. The effect of economic support-oriented pattern was relatively better than other patterns for both male and female infertility prevalence relief. Nevertheless, the effectiveness of gradual-promotion pattern seemed preferable for male infertility prevalence relief while was similar with simultaneous-promotion pattern for females. CONCLUSIONS: Our data-driven analysis revealed that insurance coverage and economic reward policies played the pivotal role in moderation of female infertility status. Economic support-oriented pattern and gradual-promotion pattern were preferable when promoting infertility-related policies. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12889-022-13802-9.