{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,7]],"date-time":"2026-08-07T17:01:03Z","timestamp":1786122063630,"version":"build-2736575974"},"reference-count":56,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"16","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,7]],"date-time":"2026-08-07T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1786060800000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100014538","name":"Indonesian Education Scholarship","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["202205080284"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["202205080284"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100014538","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Nutrients"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Background\/Objectives: Obesity-related inflammation may disrupt iron homeostasis and increase the risk of iron deficiency, yet evidence among women in low- and middle-income countries remains limited. This study examined the independent association between overweight\/obesity and iron status among Indonesian women of reproductive age. Methods: A case\u2013control study was conducted among 340 nonpregnant women aged 20\u201329 years in Surabaya, Indonesia. Sociodemographic, dietary, menstrual, and anthropometric data were collected alongside venous blood samples. Logistic regression models were used to examine associations between adiposity measures and iron deficiency (ID), anaemia, and iron deficiency anaemia (IDA), adjusting for potential confounders. Results: Inflammation-adjusted serum ferritin was significantly higher among women with overweight\/obesity than among normal-weight women (22.39 \u00b1 21.7 vs. 17.78 \u00b1 17.6 \u00b5g\/L; p = 0.033). Consistent with this, the prevalence of ID was lower among women with overweight\/obesity, likely reflecting inflammation-related ferritin elevation that may influence diagnostic classification. BMI-defined overweight\/obesity was not independently associated with ID, anaemia, or IDA. In contrast, higher body fat percentage was inversely associated with ID (AOR 0.93; 95% CI 0.86, 0.99) and IDA (AOR 0.86; 95% CI 0.75, 0.99). Elevated alpha-1-acid glycoprotein (AGP) was independently associated with higher odds of IDA, and menstrual iron loss was an independent predictor of anaemia and IDA. Conclusions: BMI alone is insufficient to capture the relationship between adiposity and iron status in women of reproductive age. Body fat percentage appears to be a more sensitive indicator of adiposity-related iron risk. These findings suggest that inflammation associated with adiposity may alter iron biomarkers, and reliance on BMI alone may obscure the true burden of iron deficiency in this population.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/nu18162583","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,7]],"date-time":"2026-08-07T08:01:36Z","timestamp":1786089696000},"page":"2583","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Overweight\/Obesity and Body Fat Percentage in Relation to Iron Status Among Indonesian Women of Reproductive Age: Evidence from a Case\u2013Control Study"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"18","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-6094-4885","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Qonita","family":"Rachmah","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Public Health, School of Medicine and Dentistry, Griffith University, Gold Coast, QLD 4215, Australia"},{"name":"Department of Nutrition, Faculty of Public Health, Universitas Airlangga, Surabaya 60115, Indonesia"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-1533-8074","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Hai","family":"Phung","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Public Health, School of Medicine and Dentistry, Griffith University, Gold Coast, QLD 4215, Australia"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-5005-4918","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Faruk","family":"Ahmed","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Nutrition, Faculty of Public Health, Universitas Airlangga, Surabaya 60115, Indonesia"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,7]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1595","DOI":"10.1017\/S1368980021002512","article-title":"The co-occurrence of overweight\/obesity and anaemia among adult women, adolescent girls and children living in fifty-two low- and middle-income countries","volume":"25","author":"Irache","year":"2022","journal-title":"Public Health Nutr."},{"key":"ref_2","unstructured":"WHO (2025). 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