title: Association between serum ferritin concentrations and depressive symptoms in Japanese municipal employees.
abstract: It remains unclear whether levels of body iron store are related to milder forms of depression, which are more common among apparently healthy people. We examined the association between serum ferritin concentrations and depressive symptoms among 312 men and 216 women working in two municipal offices in Japan. Depressive symptoms were assessed by using the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression (CES-D) scale. In men, increased prevalence of depressive symptoms (defined by using a cutoff value of ≥ 19) was significantly associated with decreased levels of serum ferritin. In age- and study-site-adjusted models, ORs (95% CIs) for depressive symptoms for men in first, second, third, and fourth quartiles of serum ferritin concentrations were 2.83 (1.01-7.94), 1.74 (0.87-3.49), 1.33 (0.71-2.47), and 1.00 (reference), respectively (p for trend=0.02). In multivariate-adjusted model, ORs (95% CIs) in first, second, third, and fourth quartiles of serum ferritin concentrations were 2.88 (0.93-8.91), 1.91 (0.90-4.05), 1.28 (0.66-2.49), and 1.00 (reference), respectively (p for trend=0.03). No significant association was detected in women. Our finding that men with lower levels of serum ferritin concentrations had a higher prevalence of depressive symptoms suggests that adverse psychological effects may be implicated in iron deficiency among middle-age Japanese workers.
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology and International Health, International Clinical Research Center, National Center for Global Health and Medicine, Tokyo, Japan. syi@ri.ncgm.go.jp
authors.forename: Siyan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Yi
authors.forename: Akiko
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Nanri
authors.forename: Kalpana
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Poudel-Tandukar
authors.forename: Daisuke
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Nonaka
authors.forename: Yumi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Matsushita
authors.forename: Ai
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Hori
authors.forename: Tetsuya
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Mizoue
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D044466:Asian People; D003863:Depression / Q000097:blood* / Q000453:epidemiology*; D004651:Employment; D005260:Female; D005293:Ferritins / Q000097:blood*; D006801:Humans; D016015:Logistic Models; D008950:MMPI; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D012737:Sex Factors; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014505:Urban Population
chemical_list: D005293:Ferritins