This Chinese cross-sectional analysis from a national nutrition survey measured whole blood copper, magnesium and zinc in 911 rural children and related them to metabolic syndrome components. Mean whole blood zinc did not differ by sex or by number of metabolic syndrome components. The middle tertile of zinc was associated with elevated triglycerides.
Key numbers
- Whole blood zinc 5.21 ± 1.07 mg/L in all 911 children; 5.19 ± 1.06 in boys and 5.24 ± 1.08 in girls (Table 1, p. 3).
- Zinc tertile 2 vs tertile 1, elevated triglycerides: OR 2.27 (1.18 to 4.35) unadjusted and 2.12 (1.10 to 4.10) adjusted (Results, p. 5).
- Combined low copper and high zinc associated with elevated triglycerides, OR 2.21 (1.18 to 4.13) (Abstract, p. 1).
- Zinc limit of detection 0.22 µg/L; recovery 110.1% against Seronorm whole blood L-2 (Methods, p. 2).
- The authors cite a whole blood zinc normal range of 3.1 to 9.8 mg/L from a study of Swedish adolescents (Discussion, p. 5).
Methods (brief)
Children were selected by multistage stratified random sampling; fasting venous blood was analyzed by ICP-MS in kinetic energy discrimination mode. Associations were tested by multivariate logistic regression across tertiles of each element and pairwise combinations.
Evidence fitness
The study gives a large population distribution of whole blood zinc in rural Chinese children and supports association, not causation, with lipid markers. It does not measure diet or identify zinc sources.
Limitations
Cross-sectional design. The text describes triglycerides as inversely associated with zinc while reporting odds ratios above 1. Only the middle tertile reached significance.
Related evidence
Update history
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