Journal of Obesity & Weight Loss Therapy
Open Access

Abstract

Background: The prevalence of obesity in Qatar has reached an alarming rate. In addition, high prevalence of iron deficiency (ID) and iron deficiency anemia (IDA) was observed in Gulf countries. In the early 1960's an inverse relationship between plasma iron and adiposity was reported. To date, no data exist to elucidate the relationship between iron status and obesity among Qatari population. Objectives: The objectives of the study were to examine the relationship between fat distribution (waist circumference (WC), total body fat percentage, and trunk fat percentage) and iron status biomarkers in Qatari adults. Methods: Secondary data was obtained from Qatar BioBank. Two hundred (200) samples of Qatari obese (male and female) aged 21-50 years free of chronic diseases were randomly selected. Collected data included anthropometric measurements (weight, height, BMI, WC, percentage of total fat and percentage of trunk fat) and iron status biomarkers (iron, ferritin, TIBC, Hgb, RBC). IDA was defined as Hgb<12 g/100 ml for female and Hgb<13 g/100 ml for male. Data analyses were performed using SPSS software version 24.0. The values were expressed as mean±SD. The Pearson Chi-square test was used to describe the categorical variables. T-test and ANOVA were used to describe differences between groups. A p-value<0.05 was considered as statistically significant. Results: A high statistically significant association (P<0.05) was observed between IDA and the increase in trunk fat (low class: 3.0%, medium: 10.1%, and high class: 10.6%). Results revealed a decrease in ferritin, Hgb, serum iron and RBC with an increase in percentage of fat. There was a statistically significant correlation between the trunk fat percentage and iron status indicators: ferritin (r= -0.48), Hgb (r= -0.64), serum iron (r= -0.29) and RBC (r= -0.51). Moreover, a positive significant correlation was noted between WC and all iron status biomarkers. Conclusion: The present work is the first to demonstrate the association between iron status and fat distribution among Qatari. The results of this study reported a high prevalence of IDA among obese. Abdominal obesity determined by WC was statistically correlated iron biomarkers.

Biography

Abdelhamid Kerkadi has obtained his PhD in Human Nutrition from Department of Nutrition, College of Medicine, University of Montreal, Canada in 1999. He joined Qatar University in 2006 and he was Program Coordinator from 2009-2012. He is currently an Associate Professor in Human Nutrition Program, Department of Health Sciences, College of Arts and Sciences, Qatar University. His research is manly oriented to community nutrition and nutrition intervention especially in obesity prevention. He recently received a grant (NPRP-Exceptional) from Qatar National Research Fund. He has published peer-reviewed articles in many journals. He serves as the Editorial Board Member of Current Research in Nutrition and Food Science, Journal of Food, Journal of Agriculture and Environmental and International Journal of Nutrition.

E-mail: abdel.hamid@qu.edu.qa