Dietary Iron Intake and Serum Interleukin-6 Levels of Obese Children With and Without Iron Deficiency

Background: Iron deficiency is more common in obese children. Low dietary iron intake and inflammation are suspected as the cause. This study investigates the dietary iron intake and serum IL-6 levels relationship with the obese children iron status. Methods: Seventy obese children were recruited. Dietary iron intake was calculated using three days’ food record. Serum IL-6 was measured using sandwich ELISA. Iron deficiency was confirmed if iron serum 60 mcg/dl and/or saturation of transferrin 20%. Independent t-test was used to analyze the mean difference of the dietary iron intake between the with and without iron deficiency groups, α=0.05. And, Mann-Whitney for the median difference of the serum IL-6 between the two groups. Results: Forty-six subjects (65.7%) had iron deficiency. Dietary iron intake of the with and without iron deficiency groups were 6.8 mg (SD 3.3) and 6.6 mg (SD 3.8), respectively (p 0.05). The interleukin-6 was 2.7 pg/ml (0.3-16.8) and 1.7 pg/ml (0.8-4.9), respectively (p 0.05). Conclusion: Iron deficiency in obese children was high. It was not associated with low dietary iron intake, but associated with inflammation.