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Maternal smoking during pregnancy and risk of cryptorchidism: a systematic review and meta-analysis

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A Correction to this article was published on 08 January 2019

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Abstract

The risk factors for undescended testes in male infants and the underlying pathogenesis still remain unclear. The aim of this study is to identify the relationship between maternal smoking during pregnancy and risk of cryptorchidism. A systematic review was conducted using appropriate search terms to identify articles pertaining to maternal smoking during pregnancy and risk of cryptorchidism. Entries up to December 23, 2017 were taken into consideration, without any language or regional restriction. The crude ORs and their 95% CIs were computed by using the fixed-effect model. Twenty studies involving 111,712 infants were included in our meta-analysis. The risk of having a male infant with cryptorchidism was significantly different between mothers who smoked during pregnancy and those who did not (pooled crude OR 1.18, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.12–1.24, p < 0.00001).

Conclusion: Our findings suggest that smoking during pregnancy increased the risk of cryptorchidism by 1.18 times. Further investigations that are well-designed, multicentric studies measuring variables, such as the number of cigarettes smoked in a day and the stage of pregnancy during which the mothers smoked, are necessary to precisely determine the relationship between maternal smoking and risk of cryptorchidism.

What is Known:

• Preterm and low birth weight have been definitively shown to be risk factors for cryptorchidism.

• The relationship between with maternal smoking during pregnancy and risk of cryptorchidism remains controversial all the time.

What is New:

• Mothers who smoked during pregnancy had a 1.18 times higher risk of having a child with cryptorchidism as compared to those who did not smoke.

• Evidence has been found that maternal smoking during pregnancy is a definitive risk factor for cryptorchidism.

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Change history

  • 08 January 2019

    The publisher regrets that the original version of this article contained an error. Table 1 was shown in the wrong version, thus corrected table is shown in this article. The original article has been corrected.

Abbreviations

CI:

Confidence interval

OR:

Odds ratio

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Acknowledgements

I would acknowledge the support of Dept. of Urology of Children’s Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, the financial support of National Natural Science Foundation of China, and I would especially express my thanks to Professor John Hutson for language editing.

Funding

This study is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 81571425), Scientific and Technological Research Program of Chongqing Municipal Education Commission (KJ1600229), and Postgraduate scientific research innovation project of Chongqing Medical university (CYB16105).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Urology, Children’s Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, Room 806, Kejiao Building (No. 6 Building), No. 136, 2nd Zhongshan Road, Yuzhong District, Chongqing City, 400014, China

    Chengjun Yu, Yi Wei, Xiangliang Tang, Bin Liu, Lianju Shen, Chunlan Long, Tao Lin, Dawei He, Shengde Wu & Guanghui Wei

  2. Chongqing Key Laboratory of Children Urogenital Development and Tissue Engineering, Chongqing, China

    Chengjun Yu, Yi Wei, Xiangliang Tang, Shengde Wu & Guanghui Wei

  3. Ministry of Education Key Laboratory of Child Development and Disorders, Chongqing, China

    Bin Liu, Tao Lin, Dawei He, Shengde Wu & Guanghui Wei

  4. China International Science and Technology Cooperation Base of Child Development and Critical Disorders, Chongqing, China

    Lianju Shen

  5. Chongqing Key Laboratory of Pediatrics Chongqing, Chongqing, China

    Chunlan Long

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  1. Chengjun Yu
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Contributions

CJY and SDW conceived and designed the meta-analysis. CJY and YW independently searched the Pubmed, Cochrane Librery, Web of Science database, China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), WanFang Data, VIP database and China Biology Medical disc (CBM), and independently extracted the data. CJY led analysis and interpretation of data, drafted the manuscript and revised content based on feedback. YW acted as second reviewer. XLT and BL assisted with the retrieval of the database and acquisition of data. LJS and CLL assisted with the interpretation of data and provided critical revision of drafts. TL, DWH, and GHW assisted with the conception and design, interpretation of data, and critical revision of drafts. SDW acted as the corresponding author, provided funding support, assisted with interpretation of data, provided critical revision of drafts and acted as the third (mediating) reviewer.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Shengde Wu.

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Communicated by Mario Bianchetti

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The original version of this article was revised: Table 1 was shown in the wrong version, thus corrected table is shown in this article.

The authors consider that the first author should be regarded as joint First Author.

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Yu, C., Wei, Y., Tang, X. et al. Maternal smoking during pregnancy and risk of cryptorchidism: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Eur J Pediatr 178, 287–297 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00431-018-3293-9

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