IVF children shown to have a better quality of life as adults in new
study
First study to explore prosocial development of adults conceived with
assisted reproductive technology show positive results
Date:
March 23, 2022
Source:
Taylor & Francis Group
Summary:
Being conceived via assisted reproductive technology (ART), such as
IVF, may provide some advantages in quality of life in adulthood,
according to the results of a new study.
FULL STORY ========================================================================== Being conceived via assisted reproductive technology (ART), such as IVF,
may provide some advantages in quality of life in adulthood, according
to the results of a new study.
==========================================================================
The results of the study, published in Human Fertility,offer reassuring
news for people who have been conceived with ART -- and those who need
to use the technology to conceive.
"Our findings suggest that being ART-conceived can provide some advantages
on quality of life in adulthood, independent of other psychosocial
factors," said lead author Karin Hammarberg of Monash University,
Melbourne, Australia.
"Together with previous evidence that adults conceived by ART have
similar physical health to those who were naturally conceived, this
is reassuring for people who were conceived with ART -- and those
who need ART to conceive." In the more than four decades since the
first birth following in vitro fertilisation (IVF) in 1978, more than
8 million children have been born as a result of ART. In that time,
many studies have evaluated the physical health, development and
psychosocial well-being of ART-conceived children compared with those
naturally conceived (NC). But currently, there is less known about the
health and quality of life of adults who were conceived by ART.
This study involved 193 young adults who were conceived through ART and
86 through NC in the state of Victoria, Australia. These participants
completed questionnaires, which included a standardised quality of life
measure (World Health Organisation Quality of Life -- Brief Assessment (WHOQoL-BREF)), when aged 18-28 years (T1) and again when aged 22-35
years (T2). The WHOQoL-BREF assesses four domains of quality of life:
1) physical 2) psychosocial 3) social relationships and 4) environment.
The researchers looked at the associations between factors present at T1
(mode of conception, the mother's age when the participant was born,
sexual orientation, family financial situation in secondary school,
perceptions of own weight, number of close friends, frequency of vigorous exercise and quality of relationships with parents) and the scores on
the four domains of WHOQoL-BREF at T2.
After making statistical adjustments to account for other psychosocial
factors present in young adulthood, the results showed that being
ART-conceived was strongly linked with higher scores (better quality
of life) on both the social relationships and environment WHOQoL-BREF
domains at T2. In addition, having less psychological distress, a more
positive relationship with parents, a better financial situation, and perceptions of being about the right weight at T1 were associated with
higher scores on one or more WHOQoL-BREF domains at T2.
"Children conceived via ART are nowadays a substantial part of the
population - - and it's important to continue to evaluate the long-term
effects of ART on their physical health and well-being as they progress
through adolescence into adulthood," said Hammarberg. "When accounting
for other factors present in young adulthood, being ART-conceived appears
to confer some advantages in quality of life. Perhaps unsurprisingly,
we also found that, independently of how the person was conceived,
having a better relationship with parents, less psychological distress,
and a better family financial situation in young adulthood contributed
to a better adult quality of life." This is the first study to explore
the contributions of being conceived with ART and psychosocial factors
present in young adulthood to the quality of life of adults. While the
findings are reassuring, they should be be interpreted with caution
because many of those who took part in the first study did not take part
in the follow-up study.
========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by Taylor_&_Francis_Group. Note:
Content may be edited for style and length.
========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Karin Hammarberg, Jane Halliday, Joanne Kennedy, David P. Burgner,
David
J. Amor, Lex W. Doyle, Markus Juonala, Sarath Ranganathan, Liam
Welsh, Michael Cheung, Robert McLachlan, John McBain, Sharon
Lewis. Does being conceived by assisted reproductive technology
influence adult quality of life? Human Fertility, 2022; 1 DOI:
10.1080/14647273.2022.2042860 ==========================================================================
Link to news story:
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/03/220323101314.htm
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