More TV viewing, less exercise leads to lower sperm count - study

Accra, Feb. 6, GNA - A study in the British Journal of Sports Medicine shows that men who watched television 20 or more hours a week had sperm counts that were 44 per cent lower than those who watched little television.

According to the study, men who exercise 15 or more hours each week have sperm counts that are 73 per cent higher than those who exercise little.

The study by the Harvard School of Public Health, which was made available to the Ghana News Agency on Wednesday, was based on a survey of about 200 men living in Rochester, New York, who were between the ages of 18 to 22 from 2009-2010.

The objective of the study was to evaluate the relationship of physical activity and television watching with sperm parameters in a population of young healthy men.

It said a lower sperm count did not mean a man was less fertile or less likely to father a child, but said physical activity did affect the quality of semen.

'In this population of healthy men, higher moderate-to-vigorous activity and less television watching were significantly associated with higher total sperm count and sperm concentration', the study concluded.

GNA