Associations between intakes of food groups recommended by the Dietary Guidelines for Americans and iron status in subsets of the US population: a cross-sectional study

To determine how food groups recommended in the Dietary Guidelines for Americans relate to dietary iron intake and iron status in subsets of the US population, multivariate regressions were used to examine associations between Healthy Eating Index (HEI) total and component scores with dietary iron intake and iron status indicators [body iron, ferritin, soluble transferrin receptor, serum iron, transferrin saturation, hemoglobin, hematocrit) in males (12+ y, n=2420), females of reproductive age (12-49 y, n=9757), young children (2-5 y, n=4058), and toddlers (12-23 mo, n=1132) from NHANES 2003-18. Differences in body iron by quintiles of HEI total and composite scores were assessed with least-squared mean regressions. Covariate adjustments included age, ethnicity, body-mass-index, poverty-income-ratio, smoking, and supplemental iron intake. To explore specific foods contributing to associations, the top 3 foods consumed for each HEI component were identified in each analysis subset.