Male contribution towards couple infertility is increasing but is less discussed. We aimed to assess the knowledge about iron deficiency anemia (IDA) as a contributor to male infertility in students at health colleges of Jazan University. A multicentric, cross-sectional survey included 910 participants and 768 participants qualified as per our inclusion criteria. The questions were categorized as: Model 1-knowledge about IDA-induced male infertility; Model 2-knowledge about IDA. The average knowledge of IDA causing male infertility is very low among students. The 18-20 years age group had a lesser score for either knowledge of IDA (M2; p-value = 0.047) or total (p-value < 0.0001) compared to the older group. In addition, female students were significantly more likely to be better in achieving higher total scores (p-value = 0.023) as well as M2 scores (p-value < 0.0001) when compared to the respective male category. On the other hand, males were significantly better in scoring for M1 (p-value = 0.004) compared to females. Awareness about iron deficiency anemia as a factor in male infertility may reduce the infertility burden, arising from a preventable factor, in the Jazan region.
Keywords: iron; iron deficiency anemia; male infertility; micronutrient.