Is It the Appropriate Time to Stop Applying Selenium Enriched Salt in Kashin-Beck Disease Areas in China?

Yujie Ning,Feng Zhang,Yanxia Lei,Xi Wang,Xiong Guo,Lianhe Zhang,Sen Wang

doi:10.3390/nu7085276

Abstract

We aimed to identify significant factors of selenium (Se) nutrition of children in Kashin-Beck disease (KBD) endemic areas and non-KBD area in Shaanxi Province for providing evidence of whether it is the time to stop applying Se-enriched salt in KBD areas. A cross-sectional study contained 368 stratified randomly selected children aged 4–14 years was conducted with 24-h retrospective questionnaire based on a pre-investigation. Food and hair samples were collected and had Se contents determined with hydride generation atomic fluorescence spectrometry. Average hair Se content of 349.0 ± 60.2 ng/g in KBD-endemic counties was significantly lower than 374.1 ± 47.0 ng/g in non-KBD counties. It was significantly higher in the male children (365.2 ± 52.3 ng/g) than in the female (345.0 ± 62.2 ng/g, p = 0.002) and significantly higher in the 4.0–6.9 years group (375.2 ± 58.9 ng/g) than the 7.0–14.0 years group (347.0 ± 56.1 ng/g, p < 0.01). Gender, living area, Se intake without supplements, Se-enriched salt, oil source and protein intake were identified as significant factors of hair Se contents. Cereals, meat and milk were commonly included as significant food categories that mainly contributed to Se intake without supplement of the whole population. Balanced dietary structure without Se supplement could effectively enhance and maintain children’s Se nutrition. It may be the time to stop applying Se-enriched salt in KBD areas in Shaanxi Province.

Highlights

Until 1957, scientists have discovered the essential positive effects of Se on animals breaking the limitation of only studying its biologically toxic effects [1,2]
According to the results of prior investigation, we adjusted the contents of questionnaires, most of which were about the food items, such as deleting the unusual foods and adding the ones that the residents often consume
Se-enriched salt still plays a role in keeping children’s Se nutritional status, the better source of food and improved dietary structure may enhance and maintain the children’s Se nutrition in a better and safer way, which indicates that more attention should be paid to the quality and diversity of food for better comprehensive nutrition of children

Summary

Introduction

Until 1957, scientists have discovered the essential positive effects of Se on animals breaking the limitation of only studying its biologically toxic effects [1,2]. Se-deficiency have been revealed in human beings, mice and other mammalian animals such as pigs and horses [3,4,5,6,7,8,9]. Kashin-Beck disease (KBD) is a serious kind of endemically deformed osteoarthropathy with unclear etiology and pathology. It mainly is distributed from the northeast to southwest China, where the environment is Se-deficient [10]. Se deficiency was found to be one of the main risk factors of KBD [11,12]. As KBD attacks local residents in childhood and clinically manifests [13]

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