[Study on serum selenium level of people in service sectors in Taigu County, Shanxi Province]

To detect serum selenium level of people in non-selenium-deficiency region.

A total of 793 subjects were recruited by random sampling from people engaged in service sectors in Taign county, Shanxi province. Information about gender, age, occupation and educational level were collected and the content of serum selenium was measured by fluorospectrophotometry. All data were statistically analyzed with SPSS software version 13.0.

The age distribution for these samples ranged from 20 to 67 years old. Their average serum selenium level and standard deviation (SD) were (0.0913 +/- 0.0186) mcirog/ml, (0.0947 +/- 0.0184) microg/ml and (0.0887 +/- 0.0184) microg/ml for total, male and female, respectively, and the level of male was significantly higher than that of female. There were no significant differences of serum selenium in each group of different ages, occupation, and educational level. Serum selenium in male were significantly higher than in female in both 20-29 years old group and 30-39 years old group, but there were no significant differences in groups older than 40. In 30-39 years old group, male had the highest serum selenium, but female occurred just the opposite. There was a decrease of serum selenium in male older than 40, but a great increase in female.

The serum selenium level of adults in this area was adequate, but compared with progressed areas in the world, it could be categorized as low-middle level, serum selenium in male of 20-40 years old was significantly higher than in female, but the differences turn to be narrow in people older than 40 years old.