Table 2 Baseline characteristics from BIOSTAT-CHF, based on sex and selenium status
Factor (BIOSTAT CHF) | Total cohort | Selenium deficient (< 70 μg/L) | P-value | Selenium non-deficient (≥ 70 μg/L) | P-value interaction by sex | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Males | Females | Males | Females | P-value | ||||
N | 1994 | 280 | 137 | Â | 1175 | 402 | Â | Â |
Demographics | ||||||||
 Selenium concentration (μg/L) | 89.1 (24.9) | 58.5 (8.2) | 57.5 (9.0) | 0.26 | 97.9 (21.5) | 95.3 (19.9) | 0.035 | – |
 Age (years) | 70.1 (11.6) | 72.2 (10.6) | 77.8 (8.7) |  < 0.001 | 68.2 (11.6) | 71.5 (11.8) |  < 0.001 | 0.560 |
 Prevalence of myocardial infarction (%) | 768 (38.5%) | 114 (40.7%) | 43 (31.4%) | 0.065 | 503 (42.8%) | 108 (26.9%) |  < 0.001 | 0.084 |
 Prevalence of cerebrovascular accident (%) | 184 (9.2%) | 27 (9.6%) | 16 (11.7%) | 0.52 | 106 (9.0%) | 35 (8.7%) | 0.85 | 0.477 |
 Prevalence of atrial fibrillation (%) | 953 (47.8%) | 142 (50.7%) | 72 (52.6%) | 0.72 | 577 (49.1%) | 162 (40.3%) | 0.002 | 0.131 |
Signs of metabolic syndrome | ||||||||
 BMI (kg/m2) | 27.9 (5.4) | 27.5 (5.3) | 27.4 (5.2) | 0.85 | 28.2 (5.3) | 27.5 (5.9) | 0.023 | 0.021 |
 Systolic blood pressure (mmHg) | 125.0 (21.3) | 121.8 (19.2) | 130.9 (27.8) |  < 0.001 | 124.6 (20.7) | 126.1 (21.3) | 0.22 | 0.094 |
 Prevalence of hypertension (%) | 1262 (63.3%) | 163 (58.2%) | 107 (78.1%) |  < 0.001 | 733 (62.4%) | 259 (64.4%) | 0.46 | 0.045 |
 Prevalence of diabetes mellitus (%) | 667 (33.5%) | 95 (33.9%) | 56 (40.9%) | 0.17 | 402 (34.2%) | 114 (28.4%) | 0.031 | 0.024 |
 Glucose (mmol/L) | 6.3 (5.3, 7.9) | 6.1 (5.3, 7.8) | 6.3 (5.2, 8.3) | 0.47 | 6.3 (5.4, 7.9) | 6.4 (5.3, 8.0) | 0.93 | 0.834 |
 Total cholesterol (mmol/L) | 4.1 (3.3, 5.0) | 3.7 (3.1, 4.6) | 3.8 (3.0, 4.4) | 0.97 | 4.1 (3.3, 5.0) | 4.5 (3.6, 5.4) |  < 0.001 | 0.001 |
 CRP (mg/L) | 12.4 (5.5, 26.1) | 18.0 (8.4, 32.3) | 16.0 (7.7, 31.5) | 0.68 | 11.1 (5.0, 23.4) | 12.1 (4.5, 26.1) | 0.42 | 0.858 |