In Zambia, essential hypertension is one of the commonest and prevalent non-communicable diseases. Current literatures lack clear estimate of serum selenium levels among essential hypertensive patients in Zambia despite evidence of its role in development of hypertension. Hence the study investigated the selenium levels in essential hypertensive adults at the University Teaching Hospital, Lusaka, Zambia. The study hypothesized that serum selenium levels were significantly lower in this population and was a risk factor for developing hypertension. An analytical cross-sectional design was applied to a total of 245 participants. Blood was collected for serum levels of selenium, glucose, urea, creatinine and electrolytes. Two sample Wilcoxon rank-sum (Mann Whitney) test was used to compare the serum selenium levels between hypertensive and normotensive participants. Significant (p = 0.018) lower levels of median serum selenium were observed in essential hypertensive adults (0.08 mg/L, IQR 0.053-0.154) than in healthy normotensive adults (0.09 mg/L, IQR 0.073-0.155). Regression results showed no significant relationship off selenium levels with age (p = 0.255), body mass index (BMI) (p = 0.232) and height (p = 0.338). From the findings serum selenium levels may be a risk factor for essential hypertension in this population. Therefore, future studies should consider randomised controlled clinical trials on selenium supplementation in this population

Keywords: Hypertension, essential hypertension, selenium, reactive oxygen species (ROS)