Iron Storage in Women is Positively Correlated with Aging and BMI Values

Abstract

Iron deficiency occurs commonly in vulnerable groups of women at reproductive age. But many studies have shown that the situation of iron overload in the elderly becomes an increasingly serious issue. In the present study, we aimed to investigate the association of serum ferritin levels with age and body mass index (BMI) and the iron status in middle‐aged women. This cross‐sectional study was carried out on 4625 healthy women in Qingdao who were at the age of 40–70 and had informed consent to participate in the study. Serum ferritin concentrations of all participants were measured by an automated radioimmunoassay analyzer. For female adults, normal serum ferritin is defined by the World Health Organization as 15~150 μg/L, and anemia as <15 μg/L, iron overload as ≥150 μg/L. Among all the participants, 76.25% had a normal iron storage, 19.10% had iron deficiency, and 4.65% had iron overload. The median of serum ferritin concentration in 65–70 years old was nearly two‐fold higher than that in 45–50 yeas old. And in obese people, the median of serum ferritin concentration was significantly higher than that in lean people. Furthermore, serum ferritin was positively correlated with age and BMI, with the correlation coefficient values at 0.376 and 0.156 (both p<0.05), respectively. In conclusion, our results suggest an increasing prevalence of iron overload with age and BMI.Support or Funding InformationSupported by the National Natural Science fund (No. 81373000)