ArticleEndocrinology, diabetes & metabolism2025
Revisiting the Obesity-Anaemia Paradox: Inflammation and Iron Homeostasis in the BMI-Haemoglobin Relationship.
Article in Endocrinology, diabetes & metabolism, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
3 citing papers in PubMed.
- Micronutrient risk with GLP-1 receptor and dual incretin agonists in obesity: Mechanistic pathways, clinical signals, and a monitoring framework.Obesity pillars · 2026Review
- Combined Effect of Hemoglobin Levels and Obesity on the Risk of Incident Venous Thromboembolism: The Tromsø Study.TH open : companion journal to thrombosis and haemostasis · 2026Article
- Revisiting the Obesity-Anaemia Paradox: Inflammation and Iron Homeostasis in the BMI-Haemoglobin Relationship.Endocrinology, diabetes & metabolism · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundObesity and anaemia are global epidemics with complex, overlapping pathophysiology. While excess adiposity is known to induce chronic inflammation that disrupts iron homeostasis, multiple population studies paradoxically report higher haemoglobin levels and lower anaemia prevalence among obese individuals. The nonlinear and potentially suppressive role of inflammation in this relationship remains understudied.
methodsWe analysed adults aged 18-64 from the 2015-2023 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). Haemoglobin was modelled as a function of body-mass index (BMI) using survey-weighted linear regression with restricted cubic splines. Interactions with log-transformed CRP were assessed, and ferritin was corrected for inflammation using BRINDA regression-residual methods. Causal mediation analysis decomposed the total effect of BMI on haemoglobin into indirect (mediated by CRP) and direct effects. Secondary models examined anaemia (Hb < 13.0 g/dL in men, < 12.0 g/dL in women) using logistic regression.
resultsHaemoglobin increased steeply across lower BMI ranges but plateaued above 30 kg/m
conclusionsBMI is positively associated with haemoglobin in a non-linear, CRP-dependent fashion. Inflammation significantly suppresses the haematologic benefit of excess adiposity, while inflammation-adjusted ferritin plays a minimal mediating role. These findings underscore the importance of modelling non-linearity and correcting iron biomarkers for inflammation when studying obesity-related anaemia.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What Socratic holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.