Maternal selenium intake and selenium status during pregnancy in relation to preeclampsia and pregnancy-induced hypertension in a large Norwegian Pregnancy Cohort Study

ABSTR A C T Background: Pregnancy-induced hypertensive disorders (PIHD), including preeclampsia, cause maternal and perinatal morbidity and mortality worldwide. Several studies have linked selenium supplementation and sele-nium status to the risk of preeclampsia, but there are no published prospective population-based studies exam-ining associations between dietary selenium intake and preeclampsia. Aim: To examine associations between selenium intake from diet and supplements and selenium blood status and PIHD incidence, with sub-analyses for pregnancy-induced hypertension (PIH) and preeclampsia, in a large pregnancy cohort. Method: The study is based on 69,972 singleton pregnancies from the Norwegian Mother, Father and Child Cohort Study. Maternal dietary selenium intake was assessed with a validated, semi-quantitative food frequency ques-tionnaire at about gestational week 22. Maternal selenium concentrations were measured in whole blood col-lected around gestational week 18 in a subset of 2572 women. Preeclampsia and PIH diagnosges were obtained from the Medical Birth Registry of Norway.