Plasma ferritin in an elderly population living in the community.

Plasma ferritin was measured in 420 apparently healthy active elderly subjects living in the community. Mean values were comparable to other published results for elderly subjects. Higher values were obtained in men and in diabetic subjects. Mean values for men and women after exclusion of subjects with diabetes and other diseases were not significantly lower. It is concluded that a) the age-related rise in plasma ferritin observed in other studies represents a physiologic change, with pathologic processes only playing a small part in contributing to the increase, b) reference intervals appropriate to the elderly should be used, and c) plasma ferritin may not be a useful screening test for iron deficiency anemia or hemochromatosis in the elderly.