Association between Iron Stores and Dietary Iron Intake with Lipid Profiles in Women of Reproductive Age

In some studies increasing iron stores, even within the normal range is associated with cardiovascular disease. Lipid profile abnormalities is also one of the identified cardiovascular risk factors. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the association between iron stores and dietary iron intake with lipid profiles in women of reproductive age. This cross-sectional study was conducted on 82 women of reproductive age. They were students and staff of Isfahan University Medical Sciences. Fasting plasma glucose, insulin, and ferritin and lipoprotein concentration of all the participants were measured. Dietary iron intake was assessed by the food frequency questionaire. Inferential and descriptive statistics via SPSS software version 18 were used for data analysis. Mean serum ferritin was 47.41 ± 8.22 µg/dl and mean dietary iron intake was 14.88 ± 8.17 mg/d. Pearson correlation indicated a significant positive correlation between serum ferritin and total cholestrol (r = 0.267, P = 0.008), triglycerides(r = 0.278, P = 0.006) and fasting plasma glucose (r = 0.275, P = 0.006). After adjustment for confounding variables, only serum ferritin was significantly correlated with fasting blood glucose (P = 0.016). Before and after adjustment for confounding variables, hematocrit, hemoglobin, and total heme and non-heme deitary iron intake were not correlated with lipoproteins, serum insulin and fasting blood glucose. These findings suggest that serum ferritin is not correlated with lipoproteins. More studies are necessary to confirm these results.