Infertility and Uncertainty: Measurement of Infertility in sub-Saharan Africa

Jasmine Fledderjohann, Pennsylvania State University
David Johnson, Pennsylvania State University

Though existing research on infertility in the SSA suggests a conservative demographic measure is ideal for measuring prevalence, the dearth of self-identified infertility measures in survey data in the region has prevented comparisons of measures. Arguably, however, women's perceptions of their own infertility status may have a greater impact for social outcomes such as marital instability and mental health. Using 8 waves of panel data from Ghana, this paper considers the optimal measure of infertility for social research in sub-Saharan Africa. First, correlations are used to examine the relationship within and between measures. Next, the stability of several measures of infertility currently used in the demographic and biomedical literature is assessed through the application of a test-retest statistical method. Finally, random effects models are applied to explore how each measure relates to background demographic characteristics.