Objective:

To describe serum levels of calcium, copper, selenium, magnesium, iron and zinc and evaluate their relationship with maternal socio-demographic characteristics and dietary variables in women in the first trimester of pregnancy.

Method:

Cross-sectional study with 1279 participants from the INMA cohorts.

Results:

The concentrations of the elements analyzed were within the normal range. Associations with higher levels of these metals were found for calcium with white meat intake (p = 0.026), for copper with excess body weight (p < 0.01), low social class (p = 0.03) and being multipara (p < 0.01), for magnesium with being over 35 years old (p = 0.001), high social class (p = 0.044), primiparous status (p = 0.002) and low daily intake of bread (p = 0.009) and legumes (p = 0.020); for zinc with university education (p = 0.039) and residence in Gipuzkoa (p < 0.01), and for selenium with residence in Valencia (p< 0.01), university education (p = 0.001), vitamin B6 supplementation (p = 0.006), fish intake (> 71 g/day) (p = 0.014) and having been born in Spain (p = 0.001). Further, lower iron levels were associated with being overweight (p = 0.021) or obese (p < 0.001) and vitamin B12 supplementation (p = 0.006).

Conclusions:

Our results suggest that trace elements in the analyzed cohorts are adequate for this stage of pregnancy. The variability in these elements is mainly linked to socio-demographic and anthropometric variables.

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