Table 1 Baseline characteristics of participants and incidence of outcome diseases by sex-and menopausal stats-specific quartiles of ferritin level in the study cohort (n = 6497) [weighted values]

Age

41 (31–52)

39 (29–50)

40 (30–50)

40 (31–52)

44 (34–54)

Sex (Pre-W/Post-W/ Men),%)

32.9/16.6/50.5

32.9/16.4/50.7

32.2/16.9/50.9

33.3/17.2/49.5

33.0/15.9/51.1

BMI (Kg/mts²)

25.7 (23.1–28.6)

24.9 (22.7–27.8)

25.3 (22.8–28.1)

25.8 (23.3–28.5)

26.6 (24.1–29.9)

Systolic blood pressure (mmHg)

126 (117–137)

125 (117–135)

125 (116.5–135)

125.5 (116.5–137)

128.5 (118–140)

Diastolic blood pressure (mmHg)

70 (63–79)

69 (62–77)

69 (62–78)

70 (64–78)

73 (65–81)

Smoking status (%)

Never smoker

39

45.4

41.1

36.1

33.0

Ex-regular or Ex-occasional smoker

26.3

24.4

26.3

26.1

28.4

Current smoker

34.7

30.2

32.6

37.8

38.6

Alcohol consumption. Categories of rating units/week Prevalence (%)

Never drank

4.2

5.1

5.4

3.6

2.6

Ex-drinker

2.8

3.2

3.1

2.7

2.4

Trivial drinker/Non-zero but under 1

10.3

12.6

10.7

9.1

8.5

1–20

63.4

64.5

62.9

65.4

60.6

 ≥ 21

19.3

14.6

17.8

19.2

26.0

Total cholesterol (mmol/L)

5.4 (4.7–6.2)

5.3 (4.6–6.0)

5.4 (4.6–6.2)

5.4 (4.8–6.2)

5.6 (4.9–6.4)

HDL-cholesterol (mmol/L)

1.4 (1.2–1.7)

1.4 (1.2–1.7)

1.4 (1.2–1.7)

1.4 (1.2–1.7)

1.4 (1.1–1.7)

GGT (IU/L)

20 (14–32)

17 (13–25)

18 (14–27)

21 (15–33)

27 (18–45)

Fibrinogen (g/L)

2.9 (2.4–3.5)

2.8 (2.3–3.4)

2.9 (2.4–3.4)

3.0 (2.5–3.6)

3.1 (2.6–3.7)

Ferritin (µg/L)

61 (32–108)

25 (13–43)

62 (28–78)

91 (42–116)

161 (86–216.8)

Ferritin range by sex/menopausal status*

Premenopausal women (Pre-W) (n = 2239)

2.0–950

2.0–18

19–30

31–47

48–950

Postmenopausal women (Post-W) (n = 1343)

3.0–1000

3.0–34

35–58

58–91

92–1000

men (n = 2915)

3.0–2251

3.0–61

62–96

97–151

152–2251