Correlation between gross domestic product, utilization of in vitro fertilization, and pregnancy success rate across the world

Inequalities in assisted reproduction technology utilisation between the G20 countries

Large global inequalities in assisted reproduction technology (ART) utilisation have existed ever since the introduction of ART. The reasons for these inequalities are multifactorial and include national wealth and affordability, pronatalist policies, regulatory differences in provision, and sociocultural components such as racial, gender and educational inequalities. Examining ART utilisation across the largest world economies (G20 countries) in 2016 (the most recent year with publically available data) reveals significant inequality, which is highly correlated to gross domestic product per capita, a measure of national wealth, and to provision of government funding and/or insurance coverage for in vitro fertilisation and intracytoplasmic sperm injection. A strong negative correlation with the Gender Inequality Index is also noted. The gap in ART utilisation rate will only begin to close once the majority of nations introduce more affordable ART treatment, instigate pronatalist policies, and implement changes in education, attitudes and behaviours to minimise racial and gender inequalities; however, achieving all of these changes may be a very difficult target to attain for many poorer economies, regardless of their size.

Main topics in assisted reproductive market: A scoping review

BACKGROUND

Infertility affects around 12% of couples, and this proportion has been gradually increasing. In this context, the global assisted reproductive technologies (ART) market shows significant expansion, hovering around USD 26 billion in 2019 and is expected to reach USD 45 billion by 2025.

OBJECTIVES

We realized a scoping review of the ART market from academic publications, market reports, and specialized media news, to identify the main terms and characterize them into the main topics in the area.

DESIGN

We apply an LDA topic modeling process to identify the main terms, and clustered them into semantic synonymous topics. We extracted the patterns and information to these topics and purposed a factor/consequence correlation to them.

RESULTS

We found 2,232 academic papers and selected 632 to include in the automatic term detection. We also included 34 market reports and seven notices produced by specialized enterprises. Were identified 121 most relevant cited terms covering 7,806 citations. These terms were manually aggregated into 10 topics based on semantic similarity: neutral terms (37.2%), economic aspects (17.6%), in vitro fertilization (IVF) commodities & cross-border reproductive care (CBRC) (10.6%), geographic distribution (9.5%), social aspects (7%), regulation (6%), trends & concerns (3.9%), accessibility (3.4%), internet influence (2.9%), and fertility preservation for non-medical reasons (2%).

DISCUSSION

The analysis indicates a market with expressive complexity. Most terms were associated with more than one topic, indicating the synergism of this market's behavior. Only seven terms related to economic aspects, surrogacy and donation represent around 50% of the citations. Except for the topic formed by generic terms, the topic of the economic aspects was the most represented, reflecting macro perspectives such as a-la-carte standard of treatments, many clinics operating on a small/medium scale, and the recent formation of conglomerates. The IVF commodities & CBRC topic brings an overview of gametes pricing and transnational surrogacy, and its regulation. The topic of geographic distribution indicates that that the Asia-Pacific (APAC) market has the most significant growth potential in all fields. Despite the increase in supply and demand for infertility treatments and technological advances in recent decades, the success rate of IVF cycles remains at around 30%. Terms referring to research and development or technical improvement were not identified in a significant way in this review.

CONCLUSIONS

The formation of topics by semantic similarity proved to be an initial path for the elaboration of in-depth studies on the dynamics between several factors, for this, we present the panel classifying main terms into factors (demand, pent-up demand, or distributive) or ART market consequences. Through this approach, it was possible to observe that most of the works addresses economic aspects, regulation and geographic aspects and that topics related to research and improvement have not been addressed. In this way, we highlight the need to deepen the analysis of market elements that may be related to increased efficiency of IVF in the technical field.

The role of environmental degradation and green investment on the renewable energy production in ASEAN countries: evidence using novel MMQR technique

While ASEAN economies are enjoying economic growth, their environmental condition is worsening. One effective solution is to shift toward green investment in order to increase renewable energy production. This study examines the role of environmental degradation and green investment on renewable energy production in the context of ASEAN economies. The study analyzed critical factors of environmental degradation such as carbon, GHG, NO2 emissions, GDP, and finally green investment in the sample of ASEAN markets. Secondary data was used and extracted from WDI indicators from 2001 to 2020. To achieve the study objective, method of moments quantile regression (MMQR) model has been applied to reveal the association among variables. The empirical evidences divulged that environmental degradation could increase renewable energy production. Results implies that with the threatening impact of harmful emissions, economies shift their interest toward renewable energy production so that the cycle could be reversed. Also, the findings revealed the positive impact of green investment on renewable energy production that assures that clean energy investments are crucial for economies; thus, these shreds of evidences aid in the development of renewable energy policies which could be helpful to mitigate environmental challenges.

The Correlation Between Gross Domestic Product Per Capita and the Success Rate of Assisted Reproductive Technologies Worldwide

OBJECTIVE

Although there has been increased utilization of assisted reproductive technologies (ART) in the world, there is no conclusive definition about the relationship between the success rate of ART and national wealth.

METHODS

In this study, using the data from the International Committee for Monitoring Assisted Reproductive Technologies (ICMART), we sought to determine whether there is a correlation between the success rate of ART (represented by pregnancy and delivery rates) and national wealth represented by the gross domestic product (GDP) per capita. Moreover, to further understand the effect of GDP per capita on ART effectiveness, we analyzed the association between ART success rate and GDP per capita in 50 US states.

RESULTS

Our data showed that the number of ART treatment cycles increased as the GDP per capita increased. However, we found a negative correlation between ART success rates and GDP per capita in ICMART countries, although no correlation was seen in the US states. Using rough estimation, we derived that the success rate of ART was not related to GDP per capita in the ICMART countries with a GDP per capita greater than USD 13,000.

CONCLUSIONS

In conclusion, for the first time, we showed that when the GDP per capita of an economic territory reaches (or exceeds) USD 13,000, ART pregnancy and delivery rates were not associated with GDP per capita, and ART success rates remained stable.