Study on the selenium nutrition of children in Kaschin-Beck disease endemic areas in Rangtang county,Sichuan province

Objective To investigate the selenium concentration of child hairs and its influencing factors in Kaschin-Beck disease endemic regions in China.Methods The selenium concentration was determined for children hair,rice and tsamba samples by hydride generated atomic fluorescence spectrometry(HG-AFS).The information of age,gender and food structure of selenium nutrient status for children was collected and analyzed using the statistical software of SPSS 14.0.Results The average hair selenium concentration was(95.9±25.3)μg·kg-1 (n=19)and(117.4±40.6)μg·kg-1(n=48) for preschool and school children respectively.The concentration of selenium in hair of preschool children was significantly lower than that of school children(t=-2.139,P=0.036).The average hair selenium concentration in boys was significantly higher than that in girls for the school children (t=2.560,P=0.014).The selenium concentration of rice in school cafeteria was as 2.5 times as that of tsamba made by local farmers.Conclusion The selenium nutrient status in children is directly associated with food structure.It is important to provide children with rich selenium nutrient food and advocate for physical exercises.