Abstract
Objectives
Elderly persons with low muscle mass (LMM) or sarcopenia are prone to frailty and
functional decline. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between serum
selenium level and skeletal muscle mass in community-dwelling elderly.
Design
Cross-sectional observational study.
Setting and participants
A total of 327 elderly Taipei citizens (mean age 71.5 ± 4.7 years) were recruited
from the community.
Measurements
Skeletal muscle mass was measured by bioelectrical impedance analysis. LMM was defined
by low skeletal muscle index (SMI: muscle mass (kg)/[height (m)]2). All participants were further divided into quartiles by serum selenium level and
the risk for LMM among these quartiles was examined using multivariate logistic regression
analyses. Estimated serum selenium levels for the LMM group vs the normal group and
estimated SMI in the quartiles of serum selenium were computed by least square method
in linear regression models.
Results
The estimated mean (±standard deviation) of serum selenium level was significantly
lower in the LMM group compared with the normal group after adjusting for confounders
(1.01 ± 0.03 μmol/L vs 1.14 ± 0.02 μmol/L, P < .001). After adjusting for age, sex, lifestyle, and physical and metabolic factors,
the odds ratios (95% confidence interval, P value) of LMM in the bottom, second, and third selenium quartile groups were 4.62
(95% CI 2.11–10.10, P < .001), 2.30 (95% CI 1.05–5.03, P < .05) and 1.51 (95% CI 0.66–3.46, P = .327), respectively, compared with the top quartile group of serum selenium level.
The least square mean of SMI increased with the quartiles of serum selenium (P < .001).
Conclusions
This is the first study to demonstrate that low serum selenium is independently associated
with low muscle mass in the elderly. The causality and underlying mechanism between
selenium and low muscle mass or sarcopenia warrant further research.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: August 09, 2014
Footnotes
This study was funded by the National Health Institute of Taiwan (PH-101-PP42).
The authors declare no conflicts of interest.
Identification
Copyright
© 2014 AMDA – The Society for Post-Acute and Long-Term Care Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
