Selenium status in Southern Tasmania

Objective: To assess the selenium status of Southern Tasmanians. Design: Cross-sectional. Settings: One thousand and five hundred adults randomly selected from the electoral roll living in the Greater Hobart region of Southern Tasmania, Australia, were invited to participate. Subjects: The overall response rate was 22% (335/1500). Interventions: A venous blood sample was collected and a questionnaire administered (consisting of brief demographic details and health questions) to subjects who granted informed consent. A previously validated assay using magnetic sector ICP-MS was employed for plasma analysis. Results: Total plasma selenium levels for this sample population were normally distributed with a mean level of 110 g/l (range 67–268 g/l) indicating that the majority of the subjects were not selenium-depleted (71% with levels greater than 100 g/l). Adjustment for differential age/gender response rates produced similar values. More women under 50 (42%) and men over 50 (32%) had selenium levels <100 g/l with the potential for sub-optimal selenoprotein activity. Low education attainment was associated with low total selenium level (P