Fertility desire and its correlates: a pilot study among married citizens living in Tehran, Iran

Objective (s): During recent years fertility rate is decreasing in Iran. This study aimed to assess fertility desire and its correlates in Tehran, Iran. This was population-based study. A sample of married individuals living in all 22 districts in Tehran recruited and were asked whether they intend to have a child at present. Participants were interviewed via a structured questionnaire including items on socio-demographic and reproductive information. Logistic regression analysis was performed to assess the association between fertility desire and independent variables. In all 1200 individuals (600 male and 600 female) were interviewed. The mean age of participants was 33.6 (SD = 7.31) years. Overall 36.8% of respondents indicated that they wish to have a child while the remaining 68.2 said that they did not. The results obtained from logistic regression analysis showed that infertility disinterest was associated with marriage duration (OR = 0.91, P = 0.0001, male gender (OR = 1.45, P = 0.02), number of children at present (OR = 2.9, P = 0.0001), poor income (OR = 2.77, P = 0.0001). Other independent variables also showed association in the expected direction, but the associations were not significant. These preliminary findings could shed some light on the topic. It seems there is need to conduct a national survey to have a better insight on fertility desire among Iranians.