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Iron Status and Metabolically Unhealthy Obesity in Prepubertal Children

Milton Fabian Suárez-Ortegón1,2, Isabella Echeverri3, Anna Prats-Puig4,5,6

  • 1Basic and Clinic Sciences Group-Department of Basic Sciences of Health, Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, Cali, Colombia.

Obesity (Silver Spring, Md.)
|March 2, 2019
PubMed

Insights

Metabolically unhealthy obesity (MUO) in children is linked to higher iron markers like ferritin and hemoglobin. This suggests potential liver involvement in iron dysregulation in obese youth.

Area of Science:

  • Pediatric Endocrinology
  • Nutritional Science
  • Metabolic Health

Background:

  • Obesity in children is a growing concern with varying metabolic profiles.
  • Understanding the link between obesity phenotypes and micronutrient status is crucial for pediatric health.
  • Iron status is a key indicator of overall health and metabolic function.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the association between metabolically healthy obesity (MHO) and metabolically unhealthy obesity (MUO) and iron status markers.
  • To analyze iron status markers (ferritin, transferrin, hemoglobin) in prepubertal children with overweight and obesity.
  • To differentiate iron status between metabolically healthy and unhealthy obesity phenotypes.

Main Methods:

  • Evaluated 312 prepubertal children with overweight/obesity from a Spanish population.
  • Defined MHO and MUO based on the presence or absence of metabolic syndrome components.
  • Measured serum ferritin, transferrin, and hemoglobin levels.

Main Results:

  • Prevalence of MHOV (metabolically healthy overweight including obesity) was 35%.
  • Children with MUOV (metabolically unhealthy overweight including obesity) showed higher ferritin and hemoglobin levels compared to MHOV.
  • MUO was significantly associated with increased ferritin and hemoglobin, independent of several covariates.

Conclusions:

  • Metabolically unhealthy obesity (MUO) in prepubertal children is associated with elevated ferritin and hemoglobin levels.
  • The increased ferritin in MUO may be influenced by underlying liver injury.
  • These findings highlight the importance of assessing iron status in the context of metabolic health in obese children.
Abstract

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