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Epidemiology

Maternal selenium deficiency during gestation is positively associated with the risks for LBW and SGA newborns in a Chinese population

European Journal of Clinical Nutrition volume 75, pages 768–774 (2021)Cite this article

Subjects

Abstract

Background

Maternal selenium (Se) deficiency is associated with some adverse pregnant outcomes. However, it remains controversial whether maternal Se deficiency during gestation enhances the risks for low-birth-weight (LBW) and small-for-gestational-age (SGA) newborns.

Methods

For our cohort study, total 3133 mother-and-infant pairs were selected. Maternal serum Se concentration was detected by graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry. According to international references for maternal serum Se concentration, subjects were divided into Se deficiency (<45.0 μg/L), Se insufficiency (45.0-94.9 μg/L) and Se sufficiency (≥95.0 μg/L).

Results

There was a positive relation of maternal serum Se concentration in gestation and neonatal birth weight. Further analysis showed that the risks for LBW and SGA in SD group were significantly higher than that in SI and SS group, the adjusted ORs for LBW and SGA newborns were 1.87 (95%CI: 1.02, 3.45; P = 0.04) and 1.47 (95%CI: 1.07, 2.02; P = 0.02) in SI group, and 3.92 (95%CI: 2.03, 7.57; P < 0.001) and 2.77 (95%CI: 1.92, 4.02; P < 0.001) in SD group compared to SS group. In different gender subgroup, positive relations were observed between maternal Se deficiency and the risk for LBW girls, as well as the risks for both SGA girls and boys.

Conclusion

Maternal Se deficiency in gestation was positively associated with the risk for LBW girls, as well as the risks for both SGA girls and boys.

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Funding

This work was supported by NSFC (81473016 and 81630084), Key Projects of outstanding Youth Talent Support Program in Anhui Provincial University (gxyqZD2016056), and Young Scholars of Wan Jiang in Anhui Province, and National Key Technology R&D Program (2006BAI05A03).

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Author notes

  1. These authors contributed equally: Xiang Zhang, Yu-Jie Feng

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Toxicology, School of Public Health, Anhui Medical University, Hefei, China

    Xiang Zhang, Yu-Jie Feng, Jun Li, De-Xiang Xu & Hua Wang

  2. Key Laboratory of Environmental Toxicology of Anhui Higher Education Institutes, Hefei, China

    Xiang Zhang, Yu-Jie Feng, Jun Li, De-Xiang Xu & Hua Wang

  3. Anhui Provincial Key Laboratory of Population Health & Aristogenics, Hefei, China

    Jia-Hu Hao, Peng Zhu, De-Xiang Xu, Fang-Biao Tao & Hua Wang

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  1. Xiang Zhang
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Contributions

HW and F-BT designed the research; XZ, Y-JF, and JL performed as measurement, HW, XZ, J-HH, and PZ analyzed data; HW wrote the manuscript; D-XX revised the manuscript. All authors have approved the final version of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Fang-Biao Tao or Hua Wang.

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Zhang, X., Feng, YJ., Li, J. et al. Maternal selenium deficiency during gestation is positively associated with the risks for LBW and SGA newborns in a Chinese population. Eur J Clin Nutr 75, 768–774 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41430-020-00809-x

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