Endocrine Abstracts

According to the World Health Organisation iron deficiency is the most prevalent form of under-nutrition worldwide. Historically, the causes of iron deficiency were related principally to nutritional deficiencies and this remains a significant factor in many parts of the developing world. However, obesity is also a known cause of iron deficiency and is increasingly correlated with altered iron status and iron deficiency in affected individuals. As the obesity epidemic spreads to developing countries, iron deficiency caused by obesity is likely to increase in incidence. Altered iron status in obese individuals has been reported previously in many studies involving children, adolescents, and adult females. However, using BMI as a measure of adiposity in previous studies revealed no significant correlation with iron status in adult males.

We recruited 105 healthy, non-diabetic males in a cross sectional human study to correlate iron status against BMI, total adiposity –% body fat (%BF) and waist:hip ratio (waist:hip). BMI (R=0.807, P<0.001), %BF (R=0.848, P<0.001) and waist:hip (R=0.706, P<0.001) all significantly correlated with plasma leptin levels. BMI (R=0.458, P<0.001), %BF (R=0.336, P<0.001) and waist:hip (R=0.382, P<0.001) also correlated with the acute phase protein CRP, which is known to be raised in obesity. Serum ferritin was also measured in this population, but did not significantly correlate with BMI or waist:hip. However, serum ferritin significantly correlated with %BF (R=0.258, P=0.008), and was also correlated with plasma insulin (R=0.342, P<0.001).

This data suggests that the use of %BF may be a more sensitive measure of adiposity than BMI in studies investigating iron status–particularly in obese males. The data further suggest a causative link between obesity, altered iron status, and insulin resistance in obese non-diabetic humans.