Table 3.

Hazard ratio (95% confidence intervals) of Type 2 Diabetes for the higher biomarker level as stated, by sex and meta-analyzed across countries.

Sex	Biomarker	Model	HR (95% CI)	p value	Heterogeneity I2 (%)
Men
	Ferritin (per 100 μg/L )	1	1.18 (1.12; 1.25)	<0.001
		2	1.13 (1.08; 1.19)	<0.001
		3	1.06 (1.01; 1.12)	0.021	72.20
	TSAT≥45%	1	0.99 (0.81; 1.20)	0.885
		2	1.06 (0.86; 1.32)	0.579
		3	0.90 (0.75; 1.08)	0.259	0.0
	Serum Iron (per 5 μmol/L)	1	1.03 (0.98; 1.08)	0.293
		2	1.04 (0.98; 1.11)	0.166
		3	1.00 (0.94; 1.07)	0.976	49.40
	Transferrin (per 0.5 g/L)	1	1.20 (1.12; 1.30)	<0.001
		2	1.16 (1.05; 1.29)	0.003
		3	1.11 (1.00; 1.23)	0.061	54.50
Women
	Ferritin (per 100 μg/L)	1	1.31 (1.22; 1.41)	<0.001
		2	1.22 (1.14; 1.31)	<0.001
		3	1.12 (1.05; 1.19)	0.001	53.50
	TSAT≥45%	1	0.54 (0.44; 0.67)	<0.001
		2	0.73 (0.59; 0.91)	0.004
		3	0.68 (0.54; 0.86)	0.002	0.0
	Serum Iron (per 5 μmol/L)	1	0.92 (0.89; 0.95)	<0.001
		2	1.02 (0.97; 1.07)	0.403
		3	1.00 (0.95; 1.05)	0.869	38.00
	Transferrin (per 0.5 g/L)	1	1.30 (1.21; 1.41)	<0.001
		2	1.24 (1.15; 1.34)	<0.001
		3	1.22 (1.12; 1.33)	<0.001	55.30
Men and Women
	Ferritin (upper vs. lower quintile)†	1*	2.46 (2.05; 2.96)	<0.001
		2*	1.77 (1.57; 2.00)	<0.001
		3*	1.36 (1.20; 1.54)	<0.001	5.3

Model 1: age and center adjusted

Model 2: further adjustment for BMI, physical activity, smoking status and level of education

Model 3: further adjustment for hsCRP, ALT and GGT

^*additional adjustment for sex

^†Ferritin quintile cut-points:

Men (μg/L): ≤68, >68-117, >117-177, >177-270, >270

Women (μg/L): ≤24, >24-45, >45-73, >73-121, >121