SINGAPORE - Most people are not planning to conceive during the coronavirus outbreak, a study has found, making it unlikely that lockdowns worldwide will lead to a baby boom as previously predicted.

The study, which aimed to evaluate if the pandemic affected parenthood desires, was conducted by a team of experts led by the University of Florence.

It was carried out during the third week of the lockdown in Italy, which began on March 10, via 1,482 online interviews.

The results, recently published in the peer-reviewed Journal Of Psychosomatic Obstetrics And Gynecology, found that over 82 per cent of respondents did not intend to conceive during the pandemic. Those surveyed included both those who were and were not considering having children.

Meanwhile, over a third of those who were planning to have a child before the crisis have abandoned those plans.

The main reasons cited by nearly 60 per cent of those surveyed included concerns about future economic stability and any potential consequences on pregnancy due to the disease.

Mental well-being has also affected the desire to have a baby, said the study's lead author, Dr Elisabetta Micelli from the Assisted Reproduction Technologies Centre.

"The impact of the quarantine on the general population's perception of their stability and peacefulness is alarming," she noted.

"In our study sample, the majority of participants gave significantly higher total scores to their mental well-being before the pandemic, while lowest scores were reported in the answers referred to the Covid-19 period," she said.

The study, which surveyed men and women aged between 18 and 46 who had been in a stable heterosexual relationship for at least a year, also measured people's reported levels of sexual activity.

Two-thirds of those who had not been planning to become parents, and 60 per cent of those already trying to have children, reported no reduction in sexual intercourse.

These findings seem to suggest there may not be a baby boom resulting from people being confined indoors for long periods of time during the pandemic.

But the study's authors say it is too soon to draw such a conclusion.

"It is unknown whether these findings will result in a substantial modification of birth rate in the near future," they say.