Iron status and prevalence of hereditary haemochromatosis in a multiethnic population in northern Norway

Abstract

Objectives. The main aims of this research were to evaluate the iron status in ethnically and geographic diverse populations in northern Norway and in addition investigate the prevalence of hereditary haemochromatosis and iron overload in the same populations.Study design. Three different population surveys formed the basis, used in the subprojects. All three surveys were cross-sectional population based studies of health and living conditions. The SAMINOR study was performed in areas with mixed Sámi and Norwegian population. It was carried out in 2003 -2004. Inhabitants aged 30 years and from 36 to 79 years were invited to participate. The eligible population consisted of 27987 individuals, of whom 16640 participated, corresponding to a response rate of 61.3%. The Sør-Varanger study was carried out in 1994. All adults between 18 and 69 years of age were invited to participate (n=6822). In total 3671 individuals participated corresponding to a participation rate of 60 %. In the year of 2000, blood samples were thawed and analysed from a total of 3344 participants (61.4%), between the ages 25 - 69 years at participation. Participants younger than 25 year were not included in the present iron study. The Tromsø V study in 2001 was a population-based, prospective study of birth cohorts. The subset consisted of those who attended a more extended examination of the 1994 – 95 survey, Tromsø IV, (all men born 1925 – 39, all women born 1925 – 44 and 5 – 10% random selection of the other age groups). In addition, all inhabitants born 1971, 1961, 1956 and 1941 were also invited in 2001.In the fifth Tromsø study 8130 subjects (78% of those invited) were investigated.In total approximately 28 000 individuals from northern Norway, were analysed for iron status.