Body iron stores, dietary iron intake and coronary heart disease mortality

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Abstract
Objectives. To assess whether increased body iron stores and dietary iron intake are associated with an increased risk of coronary heart disease mortality. Design. A prospective population study with a mean mortality follow‐up time of 14 years. Setting. Participants attending a health screening examination carried out in several localities in Finland. Subjects. All 6086 men and 6102 women aged from 45 to 64 years at the baseline examination without known heart disease, who had had serum iron and total iron binding capacity (TIBC) assessed. In a random fifth of these people, dietary iron intake was assessed by a dietary history. Interventions. The study was observational without any interventions. Main outcome measures. Mortality from coronary heart disease. Results. Altogether, 739 of the men and 245 of the women died from coronary heart disease. No relationship between TIBC and coronary mortality was observed in the men; in the women, an inverse although not significant 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 lower and higher ends of the distribution. Adjustment for other risk factors did not alter the results. No association was found with dietary iron intake and coronary mortality. Conclusions. The results do not corroborate earlier findings that excess body iron stores and increased iron intake are associated with an elevated risk of coronary heart disease.