Serum Copper Status in School-Age Children and Pregnant Women in China Nutrition and Health Survey 2010-2012

Serum copper is an insensitive but reliable biomarker reflecting the change of copper nutritional status in both depleted and replete populations. The current study aimed to establish the reference values of serum copper in school-age children and pregnant women in China and to explore the adequate range of serum copper for both these two categories of people. A multistage, stratified, random sampling combined with probability proportionate to regional size sampling method was employed. A total of 4019 subjects (2736 school-age children and 1283 pregnant women) were selected from China Nutrition and Health Survey 2010-2012 (CNHS 2010-2012). The concentration of serum copper was determined by sector field inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (SF-ICP-MS). The adequate range of serum copper was determined by the logistic sigmoid saturation curve of the median derivatives. The median concentration of serum copper was 1140.9 mu g/L with a range of 746.7-1677.6 mu g/L for school-age children and 1933.4 mu g/L with a range of 947.4-3391.4 mu g/L for pregnant women. The adequate range of serum copper was 905.7-1440.7 mu g/L for school-age children and 1308.8-2537.8 mu g/L for pregnant women. These parameters represent an essential prerequisite for the assessment of copper nutritional status, as well as nutrition interventions.