Epidemiological studies have supported the premise that an adequate selenium intake is essential for thyroid-gland function Objective: To investigate whether the prevalence of thyroid disease differed in two areas, similar except for very different soil/crop selenium concentrations.
Cross-sectional observational study.
Two counties of Shaanxi Province, China, here defined as adequate- and low-selenium.
6152 participants selected by stratified cluster-sampling.
Participants completed demographic and dietary questionnaires and underwent physical and thyroid-ultrasound examinations. Serum samples were analysed for thyroid-function parameters and selenium concentration. Serum selenium was compared between different demographic, dietary and lifestyle categories in the two counties. The relationship between selenium status, dietary factors and pathological thyroid conditions was explored by logistic regression.
Complete data sets were available from 3,038 adequate-selenium and 3,114 low-selenium participants in whom median (IQR) selenium concentrations differed almost two-fold [103.6 (79.7, 135.9) vs. 57.4 (39.4, 82.1) μg/L; P=0.001]. The prevalence of pathological thyroid conditions (hypothyroidism, subclinical hypothyroidism, autoimmune thyroiditis, enlarged thyroid) was significantly lower in the adequate-selenium than in the low-selenium county (18.0% vs. 30.5%; P<0.001). Higher serum selenium was associated with lower odds (OR; 95% CI) of autoimmune thyroiditis (0.47; 0.35, 0.65), subclinical hypothyroidism (0.68; 0.58, 0.93), hypothyroidism (0.75; 0.63, 0.90) and an enlarged thyroid (0.75; 0.59, 0.97).
Low selenium status is associated with increased risk of thyroid disease. Increased selenium intake may reduce the risk in areas of low selenium intake which exist not only in China but in many other parts of the world.
Pharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmaceutical Science
8
3%
Other
27
9%
Unknown
114
40%
Attention Score in Context
Attention Score in Context
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 345. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 09 December 2025.
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