Evaluation of Demographic and Clinical Factors on Fertility Style in Iran - A Review Study

Fertility style is of great importance to human population growth rates. Identifying the different factors on fertility can influence the adoption of population policies on controlling population growth. The purpose of this review study was determination of demographic and clinical factors role on fertility patterns in Iran. A systematic search was conducted in Persian and English documents including, Cochrane Library, PubMed, Thomson Reuters, SID and Medical Library (MedLib), Magiran, Google Scholar and Science Direct (from 1991 to 2017). All types of full articles (observational or interventional) were reviewed. Keywords for search included fertility; prognostic factors; factor, demographic; determinant, fertility. By reviewing the abstracts of articles, 107 articles were selected, but overall, 31 eligible articles were included in the study. The results showed that, the marriage age, mother's education and employment are of the most important determinants of factors in fertility, also the age difference between couples, maternal and fetal complications in previous pregnancies, the number of previous children and their gender were reported as factors affecting the fertility style. It seems that the age of men and women at the time of marriage, the level of education of women and being employed are of the most important factors affecting fertility. There is also an imbalance in childbearing in different stratum of society; so that women's employment and higher education are important obstacles to childbearing.