Associations between urinary polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon metabolites and serum testosterone in U.S. adult males: National Health and nutrition examination survey 2011–2012

Abstract

Effects of environmental chemicals on human reproductive health and sex hormone levels have been reported for several years, but compared to other environmental chemicals, such as heavy metals, PCBs, triclosan, Phthalate, the links between polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and sex hormone levels have not been studied widely. Therefore, our purpose of research was to study the associations between urinary PAH metabolites and serum total testosterone (T) levels among men. The data was obtained from the independent cross-section wave (2011-2012) of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), including demographic, socioeconomic, dietary, health-related questions, examinations and laboratory test. All analyses were performed by R software (version 3.2.3), including one-way analysis of variance, multivariable linear regression, stratified analysis and heterogeneity test. Of 1102 American adults aged 20 and above included in the statistical analysis, we found that urinary 3-hydroxyfluorene and 2-hydroxyfluorene were significantly positively associated with serum T levels (β = 40.62, 95%CI = 21.78-59.46, P = 2.56 × 10 -5 ; β = 35.17, 95%CI = 13.18-57.15, P = 1.75 × 10 -3 , respectively). The associations between urinary PAH metabolites and serum T levels signified a major public health problem over the world. Prospective work is needed to investigate the potential long-term health consequences of these findings.