Association Between Iron Status and Insulin Resistance in Adults From the US

BACKGROUND

Evidence on the link between iron status markers and insulin resistance (IR) is limited. We aimed to explore the relationship between iron status and IR among U.S. adults.

METHODS

This study involved 2993 participants from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 2003-2006, 2017-2020. IR is characterized by a HOMA-IR value of ≥2.5. Weighted linear and multivariable logistic regression analyses were used to examine the linear relationships between iron status and IR. Furthermore, restricted cubic splines (RCS) were used to identify the non-linear dose-response associations. Stratified analyses by age, sex, BMI and PA were also performed. Last, ROC curve was used to evaluate the predictive value of iron status in IR.

RESULTS

In weighted linear analyses, serum iron (SI) exhibited a negative correlation with HOMA-IR (β (95% CI) = -0.03(-0.05, -0.01), P = 0.01). In weighted multivariate logistic analyses, iron intake and serum transferrin receptor (sTfR) were positively correlated with IR (OR =1.02; 95% CI=1.00-1.04, P = 0.04; OR =1.07; 95% CI=1.02-1.13, P = 0.01). Also, SI and transferrin saturation (TSAT) were negatively correlated with IR (OR =0.96; 95% CI=0.94-0.98, P <0.0001; OR =0.98; 95% CI=0.97-0.99, P <0.001) after adjusting for confounding factors. RCS depicted a nonlinear dose-response relationship between sTfR and TSAT and IR. This correlation remained consistent across various population subgroups. ROC curve showed that TSAT performed better than iron intake, SI, sTfR and TSAT in ROC analyses for IR prediction.

CONCLUSION

All biomarkers demonstrated significantly lower risk of IR with increasing iron levels, which will contribute to a more comprehensive and in-depth understanding of the relationship between the two and provide a solid foundation for future exploration of the mechanisms underlying their relationship.