Factors associated with longitudinal plasma selenium decline in the elderly: the EVA study.

Selenium status decreases in elderly populations. Cardiovascular diseases are the primary cause of death in the French elderly, and selenium may protect against cardiovascular diseases. The present work aims to evaluate the relationships between cardiovascular-related risk factors and plasma selenium variability in an elderly population during a 9-year period. Seven hundred fifty-one subjects from the EVA ("Etude du Vieillissement Artériel") study, aged 59 to 71 at baseline, were followed for 9 years. Clinical examinations and lifestyle questionnaires were repeated every 2 years. Plasma selenium determinations were performed at baseline and at the end of the study. The association between the 9-year plasma selenium variability and studied risk factors at baseline or occurring during the follow-up was evaluated by using multivariate linear regression models. After controlling all potential associated factors, age of subjects (P<.01), obesity (P=.02) and occurrence of cardiovascular disease during follow-up (P=.03) increased the longitudinal decline in plasma selenium, whereas gender, education, smoking, alcohol intakes, dyslipidemia, diabetes, hypertension had no effect (P>.05). It may be postulated that obesity and occurrence of cardiovascular events are the main factors associated with plasma selenium fall during ageing. The respective roles played by nutritional and metabolism changes in the mechanism of these associations still need to be explored.