ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Nutr.
Sec. Nutrition and Metabolism
Selenium intake modifies the association of dietary fat with hypertension among Chinese adults: a cohort study
Provisionally accepted
Jiamin Yan1*
Min-zhe Zhang2
Si-jing Liu3Hui Li4Qiang Li5
Hong-jie Yu2
Qi-qiang He6Bang-xian Ding1Ye Zeng1- 1Department of Laboratory Medicine, Wuhan Children’s Hospital (Wuhan Maternal and Child Healthcare Hospital), Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science &Technology, Wuhan, China
- 2School of Public health, Wuhan University, Wuhan, China
- 3Children’s Medical Ward I, Wuhan Children’s Hospital (Wuhan Maternal and Child Healthcare Hospital), Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science & Technology, Wuhan, China
- 4Medical Department, Taixing People’s Hospital, Wuhan, China
- 5School of Health and Nursing, Wuchang University of Technology, Wuhan, China
- 6School of public health, Wuhan University, Wuhan, China; Hubei Biomass-Resource Chemistry and Environmental Biotechnology Key Laboratory, Wuhan University, Wuhan, China
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Background: The role of selenium intake on the association of fat intake with hypertension remains unclear. This study aimed to investigate the relationship among selenium intake, dietary fat and hypertension risk among Chinese adults. Methods: Data from the China Health and Nutrition Survey were used. Individuals who were free of hypertension at baseline (2004) and participated at least once in the subsequent surveys (2006, 2009, and 2011) were included in this study. Generalized estimating equation models were used to explore the relationship between fat intake and systolic and diastolic blood pressure, and hypertension risk, as well as the modifying effect of selenium intake. Results: Among a total 5,643 participants, 1,722 adults developed hypertension during the follow-up period. After adjusting for covariates, participants in the highest fat intake group had significantly increased risk of hypertension compared with the lowest group (OR: 1.22, 95% CI: 1.01-1.47). The risk of hypertension tended to increase with increasing fat intake in the low selenium intake group, but not in the high selenium intake group. Systolic blood pressure increased by 0.69 mmHg (95% CI: 0.17-1.22) with increasing 50 g/day fat intake in the low selenium intake group (T1), whereas this association was not significant in the selenium intake T2 and T3 groups. Conclusions: Selenium intake may modify the relationship between fat intake and hypertension, with high selenium intake attenuating the negative effects of fat intake on hypertension risk.
Keywords: cohort, fat intake, Hypertension, Modifying effects, Selenium intake
Received: 27 Oct 2025; Accepted: 12 Feb 2026.
Copyright: © 2026 Yan, Zhang, Liu, Li, Li, Yu, He, Ding and Zeng. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Jiamin Yan
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