The association between dietary selenium intake and diabetes: a cross-sectional study among middle-aged and older adults

BACKGROUND Selenium is an important trace element for human health. Although numerous epidemiological and interventional studies have examined the association between selenium and diabetes, their findings have been inconclusive. Moreover, no research has specifically focused on the association between dietary selenium and diabetes in the Asian population. The objective of this study was to evaluate the relationship between dietary selenium and diabetes in middle-aged and elderly Chinese adults. METHODS A cross-sectional study including 5,423 subjects was carried out. The basic characteristics, biochemical test results, and dietary intake were collected from each subject for analysis. The adjusted odds ratio (OR) and the corresponding 95% confidence interval (CI) were used to determine the relationship between dietary selenium intake and diabetes through logistic regression. RESULTS The prevalence of diabetes in the study population was 9.7%, and the average level of dietary selenium intake was 43.51 μg/day. The multivariate adjusted OR was 1.52 (95% CI: 1.01 to 2.28, P = 0.04) for the highest quartile of dietary selenium intake in comparison with the lowest quartile. There was a significant positive association between dietary selenium intake and diabetes (P for trend = 0.03). CONCLUSION There was a significant positive correlation between dietary selenium intake and the prevalence of diabetes.