Association of lifestyle and occupational exposure factors with human semen quality: a cross-sectional study of 1060 participants

Abstract

The incidence of male infertility (MI) is rising annually. However, the lifestyle and occupational exposure factors contributing to MI remain incompletely understood. This study explored the effects of self-reported lifestyle and occupational exposure factors on semen quality. Among 1060 subjects invited to participate, 826 were eligible. The participants’ general characteristics, lifestyle, and occupational exposure factors were collected immediately before or after semen evaluation through an online questionnaire. Initially, univariate analysis was used to investigate the relationship between the abovementioned factors and semen quality. The results indicated significant associations between low semen quality and various factors, including age, BMI, infertility type and duration, abstinence time, semen and sperm parameters, smoking, alcohol consumption, irregular sleep habits, and frequent exposure to high temperatures and chemicals at work (p < 0.05). Then, multivariate analysis was conducted to identify factors independently associated with low semen quality. Adjustment for relevant confounders was achieved by including factors with a p-value < 0.25 from univariate analyses as covariates in the binomial and ordered logistic regression models. The results suggested that alcohol consumption was a positive factor for sperm concentration (odds ratio [OR] = 0.60; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.36–0.99; p = 0.045). The groups with a BMI ≥ 24 and <28 kg/m² showed a significant decrease in sperm progressive motility when compared to the reference group (BMI < 24 kg/m²) (OR = 0.63; 95% CI = 0.46–0.87, p = 0.005). In addition, the groups that drank green tea <1 time/week (OR = 1.52, 95% CI = 1.05–2.2) and 1–4 times/week (OR = 1.61, 95% CI = 1.02–2.54) exhibited significantly increased sperm DFI values compared with the group that drank green tea 5–7 times/week. In conclusion, these findings underscore the importance of maintaining a normal weight and regularly consuming green tea for men.

GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT

Keywords:

• Semen quality
• lifestyle
• occupational exposure
• green tea
• overweight
• alcohol consumption

Ethics approval

This survey study was approved by the ethics committee of the First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University (PJ2023-04-12), and all participants provided electronic written informed consent to participate in the survey.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Authors' contributions

J. X., F.T., and L. Z. Designed this research, writing - review & editing, and funding acquisition: ??,??,??; collected and analyzed data, wrote the main manuscript text and prepared figures and tables: WY, HG, LZ; collected and recorded data: YG, TL, XG, SQ, MX, CX, PZ, LZ, BS, DD, HW. All authors reviewed the manuscript.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Key R&D Program of China [2021YFC2700901], the Postgraduate Innovation Research and Practice Program of Anhui Medical University [YJS20230078], National Natural Science Foundation of China [82071705, 81971441, 82101681, 82201777 and 82171607], Non-profit Central Research Institute Fund of Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences [2019PT310002] and the University Synergy Innovation Program of Anhui Province [GXXT-2021-071].