Fertility Awareness with regard to Lifestyle and Age: A Survey among University Students in Vienna

Fragestellung: The aim of this study is to investigate university students' (medical students on one hand and non-science students on the other hand) understanding about and perceptions of fertility issues, their awareness of the effect of age and certain lifestyle factors (caffeine consumption, alcohol consumption, smoking, weight, exercise, nutrition) on fertility, their own lifestyle and their intentions of childbirth.

The investigation via anonymous questionnaire was conducted in various universities in Vienna and includes the following topics:

• Do students want to have children and if so, at which age?

• How is their knowledge about fertility issues?

• Are they aware of the influence of age and lifestyle factors on fertility?

• Does a correlation between own lifestyle and the awareness of the impact of lifestyle factors on fertility exist?

In addition to investigating the attitude of university students towards fertility issues this study aims at clarifying how

• the type of education (medical students vs. non-science students) and

• the sex (female medical students versus male medical students/female non-science students vs. male non-science students)

affects the knowledge and feelings about fertility issues and parenthood.

Studies on the topic, which were conducted in other European countries, showed that there is a trend towards postponing family planning, especially among groups with higher education. In Austria, there has been no prior research on the plans and the awareness of university students concerning the aforementioned issues. However, students' level of knowledge of fertility issues is of interest, as well as whether students have realistic plans regarding their own family planning. If this is not the case, measures to increase their awareness could be taken. Methodik: The design of the study is cross-sectional and questionnaire-based. The cases will be grouped according to type of education (medicine versus non-science) and sex (male versus female) and analysed by means of interferential statistics (e.g. Chi-squared test, t-test for independent samples). The level of significance will be P < 0,050, the power will be 0,800. Ergebnisse/Schlussfolgerung: The study is ongoing at the moment, but results will be available in time for the congress.