Hair concentrations of selenium in the Moldovan population

Abstract

BACKGROUND: There is a substantial body of evidence indicating that the ecosystems in the Republic of Moldova contain a significant amount of selenium. However, little is known regarding the levels of this essential element in the hair of the country's population. AIM: To assess hair concentrations of selenium in the population of the Republic of Moldova. METHODS: A cross-sectional study. Hair samples were collected from 301 participants aged 194 years. The data were presented and analyzed by gender and across the following age-groups: under 18, 1844, 4559 and 60+ years old. Determination of hair selenium concentration was carried out by fluorimetric method using Fluorat 02-5M fluorimeter (Lumex, Russia). Hair sample GBW 09101b was used as a reference standard. The statistical software package SPSS 23.0 was used for data processing. Normal distribution of the continuous variables was tested using KolmogorovSmirnov tests with Lilliefors significance correction. MannWhitney tests were used for comparing selenium concentrations while Kruska-Wallis tests were used for selenium concentrations across age-groups. RESULTS: Selenium concentrations in the hair of the population of Moldova ranged between 148 and 5000 g/kg with arithmetic mean (М)=697 g/kg, 95% confidence interval CI: 636758 g/kg, standard deviation (SD)=538 g/kg, geometric mean (G)=598 g/kg, median (Me)=584 g/kg. The average values of selenium concentration in the hair of the women (M=659 g/kg, G=565 g/kg) were significantly lower than those among the men (M=769 g/kg, G=666 g/kg), p=0.004. Geometric means of selenium concentrations increased with age (540585601741 g/kg), p = 0.026. CONCLUSION: This is the first study providing the evidence on hair concentration of selenium among the residents of Moldova. The results are congruent with earlier findings from the neighboring Odesa region of Ukraine with similar biogeochemical conditions. Significant gender differences in the concentration of selenium were observed. Moreover, hair concentration of selenium increased with age.