TRADITIONAL BEER CONSUMPTION AND THE IRON STATUS OF SPOUSE PAIRS FROMA RURAL-COMMUNITY IN ZIMBABWE

To examine the relationship between dietary iron exposure through the consumption of traditional beer and the presence of iron overload in b lack Africans not related by birth, we studied 28 husband and wife pai rs from a rural Zimbabwean community, Lifetime traditional beer consum ption was estimated by questioning subjects and iron status was assess ed by repeated measurements of serum ferritin and transferrin saturati on in subjects who were fasting and had received vitamin C supplementa tion. Each of the 56 study subjects had an estimated lifetime traditio nal beer consumption >1,000 L, The mean +/- standard deviation (SD) co ncentration of iron in the supernatants of nine samples of traditional beer from the community was 46 +/- 10 mg/L. Four of 28 men (14.3%) an d no women had the combination of an elevated serum ferritin and a tra nsferrin saturation >70%, suggestive of substantial iron overload. Sig nificant correlations were not found between the iron status of the hu sbands and their wives or between dietary iron exposure and iron store s. Our findings suggest that dietary iron exposure may not fully expla in the development of iron overload in Africans and are consistent wit h the hypothesis that an iron-loading gene may also be implicated in p athogenesis. (C) 1997 by The American Society of Hematology.