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Author Spotlight: Studying the Impact of Maternal Dietary Deficiencies on Long-Term Offspring Health Outcomes
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Author Spotlight: Studying the Impact of Maternal Dietary Deficiencies on Long-Term Offspring Health Outcomes

Published on: June 28, 2024

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Selenium status in pregnancy influences children's cognitive function at 1.5 years of age

Helena M Skröder1, Jena D Hamadani2, Fahmida Tofail2

  • 1Unit of Metals and Health, Institute of Environmental Medicine, Karolinska Institutet, Box 210, SE-171 77, Stockholm, Sweden.

Clinical Nutrition (Edinburgh, Scotland)
|December 3, 2014
PubMed

Insights

Maternal selenium levels during pregnancy impact child development. Lower selenium status was linked to poorer language and psychomotor skills in 1.5-year-olds, especially girls.

Area of Science:

  • Nutritional Neuroscience
  • Developmental Pediatrics
  • Maternal Health

Background:

  • Selenium is vital for neurological development, but human data on prenatal exposure is limited.
  • Animal studies indicate selenium deficiency affects the nervous system.
  • Human research on maternal selenium status and child neurodevelopment is scarce.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the association between maternal selenium levels during pregnancy and child neurodevelopment at 18 months.
  • To assess the impact of prenatal selenium status on language, mental, and psychomotor development in infants.

Main Methods:

  • Prospective cohort study nested within the MINIMat trial in rural Bangladesh.
  • Measured maternal erythrocyte selenium concentrations at 30 weeks gestation using ICP-MS.
  • Assessed child development at 1.5 years using Bayley Scales and MacArthur-BDI, with linear regression analysis.

Main Results:

  • Maternal erythrocyte selenium concentrations ranged from 0.19 to 0.87 μg/g hemoglobin.
  • Increased maternal selenium was associated with enhanced language comprehension (3.7 points per 0.50 μg/g increase).
  • Higher maternal selenium significantly improved girls' psychomotor development (12 points per 0.50 μg/g increase), with a lesser effect in boys.

Conclusions:

  • Low prenatal selenium status appears detrimental to infant psychomotor and language development.
  • Findings suggest a potential sex-specific effect of selenium on neurodevelopment.
  • Further research is warranted to understand the mechanisms behind selenium's influence on child development.
Abstract

Keywords:
BiomarkerChild developmentCognitionErythrocytePregnancySelenium

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