Seafood consumption and blood mercury concentrations in adults aged ≥20 y, 2007–2010

Details

• Alternative Title:
  Am J Clin Nutr
• Personal Author:
  Nielsen, Samara Joy ; Kit, Brian K ; Aoki, Yutaka ; Ogden, Cynthia L
• Description:
  Background:
  
  Seafood is part of a healthy diet, but seafood can also contain methyl mercury—a neurotoxin.
  
  Objective:
  
  The objective was to describe seafood consumption in US adults and to explore the relation between seafood consumption and blood mercury.
  
  Design:
  
  Seafood consumption, obtained from a food-frequency questionnaire, and blood mercury data were available for 10,673 adults who participated in the 2007–2010 NHANES—a cross-sectional nationally representative sample of the US population. Seafood consumption was categorized by type (fish or shellfish) and by frequency of consumption (0, 1–2, 3–4, or ≥5 times/mo). Linear trends in geometric mean blood mercury concentrations by frequency of seafood consumption were tested. Logistic regression analyses examined the odds of blood mercury concentrations ≥5.8 μg/L (as identified by the National Research Council) based on frequency of the specific type of seafood consumed (included in the model as continuous variables) adjusted for sex, age, and race/Hispanic origin.
  
  Results:
  
  In 2007–2010, 83.0% ± 0.7% (±SE) of adults consumed seafood in the preceding month. In adults consuming seafood, the blood mercury concentration increased as the frequency of seafood consumption increased (P < 0.001). In 2007–2010, 4.6% ± 0.39% of adults had blood mercury concentrations ≥5.8 μg/L. Results of the logistic regression on blood mercury concentrations ≥5.8 μg/L showed no association with shrimp (P = 0.21) or crab (P = 0.48) consumption and a highly significant positive association with consumption of high-mercury fish (adjusted OR per unit monthly consumption: 4.58; 95% CI: 2.44, 8.62; P < 0.001), tuna (adjusted OR: 1.14; 95% CI: 1.10, 1.17; P < 0.001), salmon (adjusted OR: 1.14; 95% CI: 1.09, 1.20; P < 0.001), and other seafood (adjusted OR: 1.12; 95% CI: 1.08, 1.15; P < 0.001).
  
  Conclusion:
  
  Most US adults consume seafood, and the blood mercury concentration is associated with the consumption of tuna, salmon, high-mercury fish, and other seafood.
  
  
• Subjects:
  Adult Animals Cross-Sectional Studies Environmental Exposure Female Food Contamination Humans Logistic Models Male Mercury Middle Aged Nutrition Surveys Seafood Surveys And Questionnaires Young Adult

  More +
• Source:
  Am J Clin Nutr. 99(5):1066-1070
• Pubmed ID:
  24522443
• Pubmed Central ID:
  PMC10952048
• Document Type:
  Journal Article
• Funding:
  CC999999/ImCDC/Intramural CDC HHSUnited States/
• Volume:
  99
• Issue:
  5
• Collection(s):
  CDC Public Access
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha256:bd6d4ac639442d120b9af00a465e73b8c9c83663a393c5382dedfeb00e2138a5
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/153453/cdc_153453_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 279.67 KB ]