Relationships between minerals’ intake and blood homocysteine levels based on three machine learning methods: a large cross-sectional study

Elevated blood homocysteine (Hcy) is a risk factor for cardiovascular disease. This study investigated the association between individual and mixed mineral intake and blood Hcy levels using data from 38,273 participants in the Shanghai Suburban Adult Cohort and Biobank. Traditional regression models showed that higher intake of several minerals was associated with lower Hcy levels. Three machine learning models (WQS, Qg-comp, and BKMR) consistently indicated that higher mixed mineral intake was associated with lower Hcy levels, with varying contributions from individual minerals. Calcium showed the highest weight in the WQS model, while iron and manganese showed the highest positive and negative weights, respectively, in the Qg-comp model. The BKMR model indicated that all minerals except sodium had high weights in the joint effect. The findings suggest that a higher intake of mixed minerals is associated with lower blood Hcy levels, with each mineral contributing differently to the overall effect.

Jing Fan, Shaojie Liu, Lanxin Wei, Qi Zhao, Genming Zhao, Ruihua Dong, Bo Chen