Latent Profile Analysis of Stigma in Infertile Women and its Influencing Factors

Purpose

Infertility, a global health challenge, often leads to stigma for affected women. This stigma brings negative impacts to infertile women, and is influenced by several factors. Research to date treats infertile women as a homogeneous group based on their stigma. We attempted to identify subgroups based on their stigma and explored variables associated with subgroups.

Methods

A cross-sectional study design was utilized, involving 439 infertile women. General information questionnaire, Infertility Stigma Scale, Perceived Social Support Scale, and the Chinese version of the Infertility Self-Efficacy Scale were used. Latent profile analysis was performed to categorize potential stigma profiles in infertile women. Multinomial logistic regression analysis was employed to explore the influencing factors of stigma among infertile women in different latent profiles.

Results

Four hundred thirty-nine infertile women were divided into three stigma profiles: low stigma level–light public stigma group (41.5%), medium stigma level–light public stigma group (48.0%), and high stigma level–deep public stigma group (10.5%). Multinomial logistic regression showed that education level, per capita family income status, duration of infertility, duration of infertility treatments, perceived social support, and self-efficacy were the influencing factors of stigma in three latent profiles.

Conclusion

Stigma in infertile women can be divided into three potential profiles, which had obvious classification characteristics. In these different latent profiles, there are differences in education level, per capita family income, duration of infertility, duration of infertility treatments, perceived social support, and self-efficacy. Social withdrawal is a common and severe issue faced by infertile women. Additionally, infertile women with high stigma levels often suffer from more severe public stigma.