Namaste SML, Rohner F, Huang J, Bhushan NL, Flores-Ayala R, Kupka R, Mei Z, Rawat R, Williams AM, Raiten DJ, Northrop-Clewes CA, Suchdev PS

June 2017 – American Journal of Clinical Nutrition

The accurate estimation of iron deficiency is important in planning and implementing interventions. Ferritin is recommended as the primary measure of iron status, but interpretability is challenging in settings with infection and inflammation. We assessed the relation between ferritin concentrations and inflammation and malaria in preschool children (PSC) (age range: 6–59 mo) and women of reproductive age (WRA) (age range: 15–49 y) and investigated adjustment algorithms to account for these effects using cross-sectional data from 15 surveys for PSC (n = 27,865) and 8 surveys for WRA (24,844), from the Biomarkers Reflecting the Inflammation and Nutritional Determinants of Anemia (BRINDA) project. Several approaches were explored to estimate depleted iron stores, including a regression correction approach. Depending on the approach used to adjust for inflammation (CRP plus AGP), the estimated prevalence of depleted iron stores increased by 7–25 and 2–8 absolute median percentage points for PSC and WRA, respectively, compared with unadjusted values. Adjustment for malaria in addition to CRP and AGP did not substantially change the estimated prevalence of depleted iron stores. This approach appears to mathematically reflect the linear relation of ferritin concentrations with acute-phase proteins. More research is warranted to validate the proposed approaches, but this study contributes to the evidence base to guide decisions about how and when to adjust ferritin for inflammation.

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