Physical activity and television watching in relation to semen quality in young men

Br J Sports Med doi:10.1136/bjsports-2012-091644 Original article Physical activity and television watching in relation to semen quality in young men Press Release Audrey Jane Gaskins1,2, Jaime Mendiola3, Myriam Afeiche1, Niels Jørgensen4, Shanna H Swan5,6, Jorge E Chavarro1,2,7 + Author Affiliations 1Department of Nutrition, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts, USA 2Department of Epidemiology, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts, USA 3Division of Preventive Medicine and Public Health, University of Murcia School of Medicine, Murcia, Spain 4University Department of Growth and Reproduction, University of Copenhagen, Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen, Denmark 5Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, School of Medicine, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York, USA 6Department of Preventive Medicine, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, New York, USA 7Channing Division of Network Medicine, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA Correspondence to Audrey Jane Gaskins, Department of Nutrition, Harvard School of Public Health, Building II 3rd Floor, 655 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA 02115, USA; agaskins@hsph.harvard.edu Jorge Chavarro, Department of Nutrition, Harvard School of Public Health, Building II 3rd Floor, 655 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA 02115, USA; jchavarr@hsph.harvard.edu Received 1 August 2012 Revised 18 December 2012 Accepted 21 December 2012 Published Online First 4 February 2013 Abstract Background Semen quality appears to have declined over the past decades but reasons for this decline are unresolved. The concurrent increase in sedentary behaviour may be a contributing factor. The objective of this study was to evaluate the relationship of physical activity and television (TV) watching with sperm parameters in a population of young, healthy men. Methods Men aged 18–22 years (n=189) from the Rochester Young Men's Study (2009–2010) participated in this analysis. Physical activity (h/week of moderate and vigorous exercise) and TV watching (h/week of TV, video or DVD watching) over the past 3 months were assessed via questionnaire. Semen quality was assessed by sperm concentration, motility, morphology and total sperm count. Results Sperm concentration and total sperm count were directly related to physical activity after multivariable adjustment (p-trend=0.01 and 0.04); men in the highest quartile of moderate-to-vigorous activity (≥15 h/week) had 73% (95% CI 15% to 160%) higher sperm concentration than men in the lowest quartile (<5 h/week). TV watching was inversely associated with sperm concentration and total sperm count in multivariable analyses (p-trend=0.05 and 0.06); men in the highest quartile of TV watching (>20 h/week) had 44% (95% CI 15 to 63%) lower sperm concentration than men in the lowest quartile (0 h/week). These measures of physical and leisure time activities were not significantly associated with sperm motility or morphology. Conclusions In this population of healthy men, higher moderate-to-vigorous activity and less TV watching were significantly associated with higher total sperm count and sperm concentration. Who is talking about this article? Article has an altmetric score of 342 See more details Picked up by 18 news outlets Blogged by 5 Tweeted by 166 On 33 Facebook pages Mentioned in 2 Google+ posts 31 readers on Mendeley We recommend Human semen quality in the new millennium: a prospective cross-sectional population-based study of 4867 men. Niels Jørgensen et al., BMJ Open, 2012 Semen quality of 1559 young men from four cities in Japan: a cross-sectional population-based study. Teruaki Iwamoto et al., BMJ Open, 2013 Habitual alcohol consumption associated with reduced semen quality and changes in reproductive hormones; a cross-sectional study among 1221 young Danish men. Tina Kold Jensen et al., BMJ Open, 2014 Semen quality and reproductive hormones in Faroese men: a cross-sectional population-based study of 481 men. Jónrit Halling et al., BMJ Open, 2013 Cross-sectional study of diet, physical activity, television viewing and sleep duration in 233 110 adults from the UK Biobank; the behavioural phenotype of cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes Sophie Cassidy et al., BMJ Open, 2016 Twenty hours of TV a week linked to almost half sperm count of those who watch little TV BMJ-British Medical Journal, ScienceDaily, 2013 Men who do exercise produce better quality semen, study finds Plataforma SINC, ScienceDaily, 2012 Better Diet Equals Better Sperm Catharine Paddock PhD, Medical News Today A pack of walnuts a day keeps the fertility specialist away? 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