Andrew Leung's Infertility Study Selected as SMRU Prize Paper
2014
Fourth-year Emory medical student Andrew Leung was the 1st author of "What are Infertility Treatment Center Websites Telling Couples About Male Factor Infertility?," which he presented at the American Society of Reproductive Medicine's (ASRM) 2014 Annual Meeting. The study was then selected as the Prize Paper by the ASRM affiliate organization Society of Male Reproduction and Urology (SMRU). The senior author of the study was Emory Urology faculty member Akanksa Mehta, MD, a recognized expert in men's health and cancer survivorship care.
The paper was the culmination of Mr. Leung's work with Dr. Mehta investigating the role of information technology in the education of couples seeking infertility care in the United States. Mr. Leung and the study team identified 428 infertility treatment centers based on the 2011 CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) Fertility Clinic Success Rates Report. They then evaluated each center's website for the presence and/or description of terms related to the etiology, workup, and treatment of male factor infertility using a standardized data abstraction form. Differences in the variables were examined with respect to United States Census Bureau geographic regions, academic center status, and affiliation with urologists. The Flesch-Kincaid readability score was applied to assess website readability.
The investigators found that only 78 percent of websites acknowledged a male factor etiology for infertility. 85 percent mentioned evaluation of the male partner, 63 percent described treatment options for male factor infertility, and only 23 percent discussed referral to a urologist. When stratified by geographic region, academic status, and urologist affiliation, differences in the variables of interest were most likely when stratified by urologist affiliation. The median website reading level was twelfth grade.
Mr. Leund, Dr. Mehta, and their coauthors concluded that the patient-directed information on infertility treatment centers' websites pertaining to the etiology, workup, and treatment of male factor infertility was variable at best. They also found that etiology was completely lacking on more than 20% of websites.
"The study showed that it is likely that couples relying on Internet based information regarding infertility evaluation and treatment are not well informed about the importance or the benefit of a male factor evaluation," says Mr. Leung.
