Association of maternal prenatal selenium concentration and preterm birth: a multicountry meta-analysis

BACKGROUND: Selenium (Se), an essential trace mineral, has been implicated in preterm birth (PTB). We aimed to determine the association of maternal Se concentrations during pregnancy with PTB risk and gestational duration in a large number of samples collected from diverse populations. METHODS: Gestational duration data and maternal plasma or serum samples of 9946 singleton live births were obtained from 17 geographically diverse study cohorts. Maternal Se concentrations were determined by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry analysis. The associations between maternal Se with PTB and gestational duration were analysed using logistic and linear regressions. The results were then combined using fixed-effect and random-effect meta-analysis. FINDINGS: In all study samples, the Se concentrations followed a normal distribution with a mean of 93.8 ng/mL (SD: 28.5 ng/mL) but varied substantially across different sites. The fixed-effect meta-analysis across the 17 cohorts showed that Se was significantly associated with PTB and gestational duration with effect size estimates of an OR=0.95 (95% CI: 0.9 to 1.00) for PTB and 0.66 days (95% CI: 0.38 to 0.94) longer gestation per 15 ng/mL increase in Se concentration. However, there was a substantial heterogeneity among study cohorts and the random-effect meta-analysis did not achieve statistical significance. The largest effect sizes were observed in UK (Liverpool) cohort, and most significant associations were observed in samples from Malawi. INTERPRETATION: While our study observed statistically significant associations between maternal Se concentration and PTB at some sites, this did not generalise across the entire cohort. Whether population-specific factors explain the heterogeneity of our findings warrants further investigation. Further evidence is needed to understand the biologic pathways, clinical efficacy and safety, before changes to antenatal nutritional recommendations for Se supplementation are considered.

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UNC Libraries
Published
2025-04-08
DOI
https://doi.org/10.17615/wpwx-qb69
Primary Topic
Selenium in Biological Systems
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article
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article

Association of maternal prenatal selenium concentration and preterm birth: a multicountry meta-analysis

Joanne Chappell, Per Ashorn, Kenneth Maleta, Criag Lacher et al.
UNC Libraries
Selenium in Biological Systems
article

Association of maternal prenatal selenium concentration and preterm birth: a multicountry meta-analysis

Joanne Chappell, Per Ashorn, Kenneth Maleta, Criag Lacher, INTERBIO- st Study Consortium, Monjur Rahman, Joan T. Price, Juhi Gupta, Mikko Hallman, Anisur Rahman, Stephen Kennedy, Jeffrey S. A. Stringer, Žarko Alfirević, Angharad Care, Fahad Aftab, Jesmin Pervin, Waqasuddin Khan, Nabidul Haque Chowdhury, James A. Litch, Jeffrey C. Murray, Elizabeth Belling, Salahuddin Ahmed, Usha Dhingra, Courtney Baruch-Gravett, Fyezah Jehan, Rajiv Bahl, Javairia Khalid, Fansheng Kong, Larry Rand, Aneeta Hotwani, Arup Dutta, Usma Mehmood, Sunil Sazawal, Daniel Roth, Jane E. Hirst, Julio Alberto Landero Figueroa, Abdullah Hel Baqui, Yue‐Mei Fan, Sayedur Rahman, Cathrine Hoyo, Saikat Deb, Kelli K. Ryckman, Rasheda Khanam, Ambreen Nizar, Furqan Kabir, Nagendra Monangi, Thanh Quang Lê, Huan Xu, Ana Alfirevic, Bellington Vwalika, Louis J. Muglia, Tahmeed Ahmed, Laura Goodfellow, Mohammed Hamad Juma, Susan K. Murphy, Muhammad Imran Nisar, Ge Zhang, Abdullah Al Mahmud, Munirul Islam, Said M. Ali, Laura L. Jelliffe‐Pawlowski, Patrick Musonda, Gerald F. Combs
article en

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Selenium (Se), an essential trace mineral, has been implicated in preterm birth (PTB). We aimed to determine the association of maternal Se concentrations during pregnancy with PTB risk and gestational duration in a large number of samples collected from diverse populations. METHODS: Gestational duration data and maternal plasma or serum samples of 9946 singleton live births were obtained from 17 geographically diverse study cohorts. Maternal Se concentrations were determined by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry analysis. The associations between maternal Se with PTB and gestational duration were analysed using logistic and linear regressions. The results were then combined using fixed-effect and random-effect meta-analysis. FINDINGS: In all study samples, the Se concentrations followed a normal distribution with a mean of 93.8 ng/mL (SD: 28.5 ng/mL) but varied substantially across different sites. The fixed-effect meta-analysis across the 17 cohorts showed that Se was significantly associated with PTB and gestational duration with effect size estimates of an OR=0.95 (95% CI: 0.9 to 1.00) for PTB and 0.66 days (95% CI: 0.38 to 0.94) longer gestation per 15 ng/mL increase in Se concentration. However, there was a substantial heterogeneity among study cohorts and the random-effect meta-analysis did not achieve statistical significance. The largest effect sizes were observed in UK (Liverpool) cohort, and most significant associations were observed in samples from Malawi. INTERPRETATION: While our study observed statistically significant associations between maternal Se concentration and PTB at some sites, this did not generalise across the entire cohort. Whether population-specific factors explain the heterogeneity of our findings warrants further investigation. Further evidence is needed to understand the biologic pathways, clinical efficacy and safety, before changes to antenatal nutritional recommendations for Se supplementation are considered.

UNC Libraries
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (US)
Openalex Percentile: Top 65%
Selenium in Biological Systems
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