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Serum ferritin, diabetes, diabetes control, and insulin resistance

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Abstract

Aims

The present study aims to investigate the association between serum ferritin and diabetes, diabetes control, and insulin resistance (IR) and examine whether gender is a modifier for these associations in a community-based sample.

Methods

A cross-sectional survey of 8,235 participants was conducted in 2009. Serum ferritin, glucose, hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c), insulin, inflammatory markers, and lipid markers were measured. IR was estimated with a Homeostasis Model Assessment (HOMA-IR) equation. Multiple logistic and linear regression models were applied to evaluate these associations.

Results

The numbers of diabetic patients and non-diabetic participants in the present study were 644 (7.8 %) and 7,591 (92.2 %). After adjusting for multiple confounders, the odds ratios (ORs) and 95 % confidence intervals (CIs) for diabetes were 1.48 (1.31–1.69) in men and 1.43 (1.24–1.65) in women for one-unit increase in log-transformed serum ferritin levels. Likewise, ORs (95 % CIs) for poor diabetes control (HbA1c ≥7.5 %) were 1.58 (1.21–2.05) and 1.37 (1.07–1.77) in men and women, respectively. As for HOMA-IR, the respective betas (P value) for one-unit increase in log-transformed serum ferritin were 0.07 (P < 0.0001) and 0.06 (P < 0.0001) in men and women.

Conclusions

In conclusion, elevated serum ferritin levels were associated with higher risks of diabetes, higher levels of HbA1c, and HOMA-IR independent of several confounders.

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Acknowledgments

This research uses data from CHNS. We thank the National Institute of Nutrition and Food Safety, China Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Carolina Population Center, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the NIH (R01-HD30880, DK056350, and R01-HD38700) and the Fogarty International Center, NIH for financial support for the CHNS data collection and analysis files from 1989 to 2006 and both parties plus the China–Japan Friendship Hospital, Ministry of Health for support for CHNS 2009, and future surveys.

Conflict of interest

Yiqiang Zhan, Zheng Tang, and Jinming Yu declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical standard

All the authors declare that there is no ethical problem associated with this manuscript.

Human and animal rights

All procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation (institutional and national) and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 2008.

Informed consent

Informed consent was obtained from all patients for being included in the study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Clinical Epidemiology, School of Public Health, Fudan University, 130 Dong’An Road, Shanghai, People’s Republic of China

    Yiqiang Zhan, Zheng Tang & Jinming Yu

  2. Key Laboratory of Public Health Safety, School of Public Health, Fudan University, Shanghai, People’s Republic of China

    Yiqiang Zhan, Zheng Tang & Jinming Yu

Authors
  1. Yiqiang Zhan
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  2. Zheng Tang
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  3. Jinming Yu
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Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Yiqiang Zhan or Jinming Yu.

Additional information

Managed by Massimo Federici.

Yiqiang Zhan and Zheng Tang have contributed equally to this work.

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Zhan, Y., Tang, Z. & Yu, J. Serum ferritin, diabetes, diabetes control, and insulin resistance. Acta Diabetol 51, 991–998 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00592-014-0656-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00592-014-0656-1

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