Abstract Objectives: To establish the prevalence of lower serum selenium status (<106 ng/ml) among the adult white American male population, to determine whether certain social, economic, geographic, physical, and dietary characteristics are risk factors for lower selenium status, and to identify a selenium augmentation strategy for white adult men deficient in this trace element. Design: An exploratory cross-sectional study using nationally representative data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey III, 1988-1994 (NHANES III). Methods: 2989 white men, aged 20 or greater in the NHANES III dataset had recorded serum selenium values. These men were divided in two groups based on selenium status, those with values of less than 106 ng/ml (n=288) and those with a status greater than or equal to 106 ng/ml (n=2701). Various demographic, physical, and dietary variables were then compared between the two selenium status groups in a bivariate analysis. Multiple logistic regression was then performed to assess possible risk factors for lower selenium status. Results: This study estimated that 7.7% of white American adult men aged 20 years and older, a total of 4,751,618 individuals, had a selenium status less than 106 ng/ml. Several, of the more than forty, social, economic, geographic, physical and dietary characteristics examined were shown to be significantly associated with a lower selenium status. Risk factors for lower selenium status (<106 ng/ml) were, smoking, living in the Southern census region, being in either the 20-39 or the 60 years or older age groups, exercising less than their peers, having a lower income, and not consuming dark bread. Conclusion: It would appear that certain physical, geographic, dietary and demographic characteristics are significantly associated with lower selenium status. While, this work was unable to identify a suitable selenium fortification vehicle to reduce the prevalence of lower selenium status, it did identify risk factors that may contribute to this condition.