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American Journal of Epidemiology Advance Access published online on January 31, 2007
American Journal of Epidemiology, doi:10.1093/aje/kwk073
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American Journal of Epidemiology Copyright © 2007 by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health All rights reserved; printed in U.S.A.

ORIGINAL CONTRIBUTION

Selenium Level and Cognitive Function in Rural Elderly Chinese

Sujuan Gao1, Yinlong Jin2, Kathleen S. Hall3, Chaoke Liang2, Frederick W. Unverzagt3, Rongdi Ji2, Jill R. Murrell4, Jingxiang Cao2, Jianzhao Shen1, Feng Ma2, Janetta Matesan1, Bo Ying2, Yibin Cheng2, Jianchao Bian5, Ping Li6 and Hugh C. Hendrie3,7,8

1 Department of Medicine, School of Medicine, Indiana University, Indianapolis, IN
2 Institute for Environmental Health and Related Product Safety, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Beijing, People's Republic of China
3 Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine, Indiana University, Indianapolis, IN
4 Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, School of Medicine, Indiana University, Indianapolis, IN
5 Shandong Institute for Prevention and Treatment of Endemic Disease in China, Jinan, People's Republic of China
6 Sichuan Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention in China, Chengdu, People's Republic of China
7 Center for Aging Research, Indiana University, Indianapolis, IN
8 Regenstrief Institute, Inc., Indianapolis, IN

Correspondence to Dr. Sujuan Gao, Department of Medicine, Indiana University School of Medicine, 410 West 10th Street, Suite 3000, Indianapolis, IN 46202-2872 (e-mail: sgao{at}iupui.edu).

Selenium is a trace element associated with antioxidant activity and is considered to be a protective agent against free radicals through enhanced enzyme activity. Studies on selenium and cognitive function or Alzheimer's disease have yielded inconsistent results. A cross-sectional survey of 2,000 rural Chinese aged 65 years or older from two provinces in the People's Republic of China was conducted from December 2003 to May 2005 by use of the Community Screening Instrument for Dementia, the Consortium to Establish a Registry for Alzheimer's Disease (CERAD) Word List Learning Test, the Indiana University Story Recall Test, the Animal Fluency Test, and the Indiana University Token Test. Over 70% of the study participants have lived in the same village since birth. Nail samples were collected and analyzed for selenium contents. Analysis-of-covariance models were used to estimate the association between quintile selenium levels measured in nail samples and cognitive test scores, with adjustment for other covariates. Lower selenium levels measured in nail samples were significantly associated with lower cognitive scores (p < 0.0087 for all tests) except the Animal Fluency Test (p = 0.4378). A dose-response effect of selenium quintiles was also seen for those significant associations. Results in this geographically stable cohort support the hypothesis that a lifelong low selenium level is associated with lower cognitive function.

aged; Asian continental ancestry group; cognition; selenium

Abbreviations: CERAD, Consortium to Establish a Registry for Alzheimer's Disease; CSID, Community Screening Instrument for Dementia; IU, Indiana University


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 J. Gerontol. A Biol. Sci. Med. Sci.Home page
S. Gao, Y. Jin, F. W. Unverzagt, F. Ma, K. S. Hall, J. R. Murrell, Y. Cheng, J. Shen, B. Ying, R. Ji, et al.
Trace Element Levels and Cognitive Function in Rural Elderly Chinese
J. Gerontol. A Biol. Sci. Med. Sci., June 1, 2008; 63(6): 635 - 641.
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