No socio-economic differences in ART treatment success: Evidence from Careggi Hospital, Italy

Abstract

Objective. Several studies have shown stark socio-economic disparities in births born via assisted reproduction technology (ART), but only a few have investigated underlying causes. We study the likelihood of ART treatment success as a possible explanation.Design. Observational study of center-based data. We consider women undergoing ART treatment at the ART-center in Careggi Hospital, Tuscany.Outcome Measures. Probability of a conception following an ART treatment; probability of abortion after conception; and probability of a live birth after an ART treatment.Results. The findings indicate no socio-economic disparity between patients with a high and low socio-economic status in the probability of achieving a successful ART treatment in terms of the probability of conception (β=0.02; 95% CI, -0.02, 0.06; P=0.362), abortion (β=-0.02; 95% CI, -0.08, 0.04; P=0.542) and live birth (β=0.02; 95% CI, -0.02, 0.06; P=0.291). The results also hold when focusing on patients at first treatment, only among natives, and by age groups.Conclusions. Our findings suggest that within a public clinic providing subsidized access to treatments, socio-economic differences in the proportion of ART births may not stem from disparities in treatment success rates. Rather, other determinants relating to access to ART treatment such as geographical barriers, cultural preferences or knowledge about treatment success may play a larger role.