Quality Indicators For Assisted Reproductive Technology Service Effectiveness And Security Of Selection And Evaluation

Objective To select a set of quality indicators of assisted reproductive technology service effectiveness and security. To describe and evaluate the ART institutions service effectiveness and security.Methods In this study, literature review and expert discussion were used to establish the indicators framework. The Delphi method was used to selecting indicators. Cronbach’s alpha coefficient, correlation coefficient analysis and factor analysis were employed to test the reliability and validity. Using in combination with subjective and objective methods to calculate the weight of the indicators. The subjective method was expert evaluation method, the objective method was the CRITIC method. TOPSIS method and RSR method were applied to evaluate the ART institutions service effectiveness and security. Using the combination evaluation, and the consistency and rationality were also explored.Results1. The final set comprised 8 service effectiveness indicators and 3 service security indicators.2. Cronbach’s alpha coefficient was 0.754, and the Guttman Split-Half Coefficient was-0.903, so the reliability was good. The factor analysis extracted five common factors, the accumulative variance was 83.218%, and had good validity.3. The weight of the service effectiveness indicators were 0.080,0.111,0.100,0.091,0.091, 0.081,0.090,0.080. The weight of the service security indicators were 0.087,0.098,0.091.4. The average age of women undergoing treatment cycles was 31.89 years, the average years of infertility was 4.78 years. Of all ART treatments in 2012,35.16% were IVF,29.18% were FET,17.89% were ICSI,9.43% were AIH,7.60% were AID,0.74% were PGD. Initiated cycles were 176057, aspiration cycles were 135055, embryo transfer cycles were 111638, clinical pregnancies were 56733, live deliveries were 46934. Of all embryo transfer cycles 46.73% resulted in a clinical pregnancy and 38.61% in a live delivery,26.62% were singletons,11.99% were multiples.5. TOPSIS method and RSR method, the evaluation results were almost the same, the Spearman rank correlation coefficients was 0.981, the combination result was much reasonable.Conclusions A multidisciplinary panel selected indicators that reflect the representativeness of assisted reproductive technology. The weight of indicators was scientific. The results from two evaluation models were in conformity with social evaluation. This set of indicators could be used to assess and monitor assisted reproductive technology service agencies.