Obesity has been linked to numerous health and nutritional problems, including impaired iron metabolism, a common cause of anemia. We aimed to determine the prevalence of anemia, iron deficiency (ID), and iron deficiency anemia (IDA) among women aged 20–49 years based on body mass index (BMI) status. We used measures of iron status and body mass index from the 2001–2006 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). Mean serum ferritin, erythrocyte protoporphyrin, and soluble transferrin receptor were higher, while those of serum iron, percent transferrin saturation, and mean cell volume (MCV) were lower in women with obesity than those with normal weight (all p < 0.016). ID based on the ferritin model was 12.5 ± 1.0% vs. 22.9 ± 1.6% (p < 0.001); 9.0 ± 0.9% vs. 20.0 ± 1.3% (p < 0.001) based on the MCV model; and 8.1 ± 1.0% vs. 10.5 ± 1.2% (p > 0.05) based on the BII model for women with normal weight and women with obesity, respectively. Anemia prevalence was 5.5 ± 0.8% (normal) vs. 9.3 ± 1.0% (obese) (p = 0.005). The IDA estimates based on the ferritin and MCV models were similar but higher than that from the BII model (p < 0.001). Generally, the prevalence rates of ID and anemia (and IDA) were higher for women with obesity, but the method used to define deficiency mattered. The choice of iron indices is important for estimating ID and IDA in populations with obesity.

Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are associated with negative health outcomes, yet their associations with performance-enhancing substance (PES) use are unclear. This study aimed to determine w...

Summary: Background: Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and obesity are independently associated with brain/neurocognitive health. Despite a growing emphasis on the importance of early life adversity on health, the relationship between ACEs and neurocognition in adults with overweight/obesity is unclear. The objective was to examine associations between self‐reported ACEs and measured neurocognitive domains in a sample of adults with overweight/obesity.Methods: Participants were 95 predominantly white, highly educated adult women (76% female, 81% Caucasian, and 75% ≥ bachelor's degree) with excess adiposity enrolled in the Cognitive and Self‐regulatory Mechanisms of Obesity Study. ACEs and fluid/crystallized neurocognitive domains were measured at baseline using the Adverse Childhood Experiences Scale and the NIH Toolbox Cognition Battery and Automated Neuropsychological Assessment Metric, respectively.Results: Higher ACEs scores were negatively correlated with fluid cognition (r = −.34, P < .001) but not crystallized cognition (r = .01, ns). Individuals with 3 and 4+ ACEs displayed significantly lower fluid cognition scores than those with fewer ACEs F_4,89 = 3.24, P < .05. After accounting for body mass index (BMI), age, sex, race, and education, higher ACEs scores were still associated with poorer performance on overall fluid cognition (β = −.36, P < .01), along with the following subtests: Stroop Colour/Word test (β = −.23, P < .05), Go/No‐Go omissions (β = .29, P < .01), and Picture Sequence Memory task (β = −.30, P < .01).Conclusions: The role of ACEs in health may be related to their associations with executive function and episodic neurocognitive domains essential to cognitive processing and self‐regulation. Obesity science should further examine the role of ACEs and neurocognition in obesity prevention, prognosis, and treatment using more rigorous, prospective designs and more diverse samples.