ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Nutr.
Sec. Nutrition and Metabolism
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fnut.2025.1617256
This article is part of the Research TopicDietary Patterns and Oxidative Stress: Implications for Obesity, T2D, and Cancer ManagementView all 10 articles
Iron Status and Dietary Iron Intake in relation to Overweight/Obesity in U.S. Adults: A nationwide population-based study
Provisionally accepted
- 1Dongzhimen Hospital, Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, Beijing, Beijing Municipality, China
- 2Guang’anmen Hospital, China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, Beijing, Beijing Municipality, China
- 3Tsinghua University Yuquan Hospital, Beijing, Beijing Municipality, China
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Background: Evidence on the associations between iron status biomarkers and both overweight/obesity prevalence and body mass index (BMI) is limited.Methods: This cross-sectional analysis utilized data from 5454 participants in the NHANES 2003-2006 and 2017-2020 cycles. Overweight and obesity were defined as BMI ≥25 kg/m² and ≥30 kg/m², respectively. Weighted multivariable logistic and liner regression models were employed to assess associations between iron biomarkers, dietary iron intake, and overweight/obesity risk or BMI. Restricted cubic splines (RCS) were utilized to explore potential non-linear patterns. Furthermore, subgroup analyses stratified by categorical covariates were conducted.Results: Following adjustment for confounding variables, weighted logistic regression identified reduced odds of overweight/obesity with higher dietary iron intake (OR = 0.98, P = 0.026), serum iron (SI; OR = 0.98, P= 0.004), and transferrin saturation (TSAT; OR = 0.98, P = 0.003). Weighted multivariable linear regression demonstrated inverse associations of dietary iron intake (β = -0.06, P = 0.045), SI (β = -0.02, P < 0.001), and TSAT (β = -0.09, P < 0.001) with BMI. Total iron-binding capacity (TIBC) exhibited a marginal positive association with overweight/obesity risk and BMI. RCS analysis revealed nonlinear doseresponse relationships between SI, TSAT, TIBC, and overweight/obesity risk. After Bonferroni correction, no significant interaction effects were observed between iron biomarkers and stratified variables.Conclusions: Elevated dietary iron intake, serum iron, and TSAT inversely associated with overweight/obesity risk, highlighting the potential protective role of adequate iron status in preventing obesity.
Keywords: Iron, Obesity, Overweight, national Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), transferrin saturation, Cross-sectional study
Received: 24 Apr 2025; Accepted: 15 Sep 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Lin, Yexin, Liu, Li, Tang, Zhao and Zhang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Jinxi Zhao, zhaojinximd@126.com
Yaofu Zhang, zhangyftcm@mail.tsinghua.edu.cn
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