Marcella Malavolti, Teresa Urbano, Tommaso Filippini, Silvia Fustinoni, Marco Vinceti
8th FESTEM Symposium, Madrid, September 28-October 1, 2022
Abstract
Introduction: Selenium is a trace element of great interest from both a toxicological and nutritional point of view. In this study we aimed to assess selenium levels in an Italian population using its urinary levels as indicator of exposure and its association with four dietary patterns, i.e., the DASH diet (Dietary Approach to Stopping Hypertension), the Italian (IMI) and Greek (GMI) Mediterranean diets, and the MIND diet (Mediterranean-DASH Intervention for Neurodegenerative Delay).
Material and methods: We recruited a group of healthy non-smoking blood donors from the Transfusion Medicine Center ‘Casa del Dono’ of AUSL-IRCCS of Reggio Emilia from April 2017 to April 2019. 148 subjects aged 35-60 years agreed to participate in the study. Adherence to the four dietary patterns was evaluated through the use of a semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaire (EPIC-FFQ) specifically developed for the Northern Italy population. For each participant demographic characteristics were collected also recorded. Urine samples were collected in the morning in fasting subjects and used for the quantification of selenium. The associations of adherence to the dietary patterns with urinary selenium levels were assessed through spline regression analyses, in a multivariable model using age, sex, and body mass index as adjustment covariates.
Results: 137 subjects were eventually enrolled in the study, 62 men and 75 women with a mean age of 47 years. Median urinary selenium levels were 22.02 mcg/L, interquartile range (IQR) 14.64-37.15 mcg/L. Dietary patterns median adherence and IQR levels were as it follows: 24 (21-28) for DASH, 4 (3-5) for IMI, 4 (3-6) for GMI, 7.5 (6.5-8.5) for MIND. From the spline analysis emerged that the IMI, GMI and MIND diets were slightly positively correlated with urinary selenium levels, while the adherence to the DASH diet showed almost a null association with selenium in urine.
Conclusion: Our results suggest that a greater adherence to the dietary patterns based on the Mediterranean type diet are associated with higher urinary excretion of the trace element selenium, as emerged from their positive association with urinary levels. Thus, we may hypothesize that a greater adherence to the investigated dietary patterns may favor a lower intake of selenium, which it may be consider beneficial for human health.