BODY IRON STORES, DIETARY IRON INTAKE AND CORONARY HEART-DISEASE MORTALITY

Objectives. To assess whether increased body iron stores and dietary i ron intake are associated with an increased risk of coronary heart dis ease mortality. Design. A prospective population study with a mean mor tality follow-up time of 14 years, Setting, Participants attending a h ealth screening examination carried out in several localities in Finla nd, Subjects, All 6086 men and 6102 women aged from 45 to 64 years at the baseline examination without known heart disease, who had had seru m iron and total iron binding capacity (TIBC) assessed, In a random fi fth of these people, dietary iron intake was assessed by a dietary his tory. Interventions, The study was observational without any intervent ions, Main outcome measures, Mortality from coronary heart disease. Re sults, Altogether, 739 of the men and 245 of the women died from coron ary heart disease. No relationship between TIBC and coronary mortality was observed in the men; in the women, an inverse although not signif icant association was found. Transferrin saturation was inversely but not significantly associated with coronary mortality in men; in women, the relationship was U-formed with a higher mortality at both the low er and higher ends of the distribution. Adjustment for other risk fact ors did not alter the results. No association was found with dietary i ron intake and coronary mortality. Conclusions. The results do not cor roborate earlier findings that excess body iron stores and increased i ron intake are associated with an elevated risk of coronary heart dise ase.