Ability of Young Women to Recall Past Body Size and Age at Menarche

Koprowski, Carol; Coates, Ralph J.; Bernstein, Leslie

doi:10.1038/oby.2001.62

Cited by 123 publications

(94 citation statements)

References 19 publications

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“…The test-retest method yielded high reliability (Kappa ¼ 0.81) in a report from Italy (Bosetti et al, 2001), and in Sweden, Bergsten-Brucefors (1976) found correlations between actual age at menarche and recall after 4 years to be high. The same results were found in the U.S. (r ¼ 0.83; Koprowski et al, 2001). In summary, this work reports the first estimate of age at menarche in Caboclo populations as well as an evaluation of the secular changes that have occurred in this physiological variable over a 50-year span.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 66%

Secular trends in age at menarche among Caboclo populations from Pará, Amazonia, Brazil: 1930–1980

Silva

Padez

2005

American J Hum Biol

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The present study is part of a large research project on growth, development, nutrition, and health of Caboclo populations from the Brazilian Amazon. The aim of this paper is to analyze the age of menarche in adolescents (N ¼ 164) and adult women (219) in the studied populations. Caboclo are admixed rural, peasant groups that live along the Amazon river and its tributaries, and there are few previous studies about them. Probit analysis of the status quo data yielded a median age at menarche of 12.29 AE 1.76 years. The retrospective method was applied to recall data of the 77 post-menarcheal adolescents, yielding an average of 13.06 AE 1.27 years. Number of children in the family did not show any statistical influence on age at menarche in any age group. In adult women, age at menarche decreased from 14.50 in those born in 1930 to 12.88 for those born in 1980 (F ¼ 4.371, P ¼ 0.001). The downward trend found was, on average, 0.237 year per decade in the study period. The median age at menarche in the adolescents (12.29 years) is one of the lowest values found for Central and South American populations. In the ecological context, a low age at menarche could be an adaptive advantage because it provides a greater chance for reproduction at a young age in an environment where, until recently, life expectancy was low. As has been reported for other developing countries, the change found in age at menarche in the women born from the 1930s to the 1980s is likely to be related to changes in health and nutritional factors that occurred in Brazil because this country experienced significant improvement in living standards related to education, vaccination, and health conditions, which, although not equally, reached all regions after the 1960s.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 66%

Secular trends in age at menarche among Caboclo populations from Pará, Amazonia, Brazil: 1930–1980

Silva

Padez

2005

American J Hum Biol

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“…In the present study, the mean interval of recall was 2.5 years, and 63% of the adolescents had reached menarche within three years of the time of interview. Previous studies that used a similar recall procedure reported a correlation coefficient of 0.83 and 0.67 between the actual and the recalled age at menarche when the mean interval of recall compared to occurrence of menarche was 4.8 years and 33 years respectively (18,19). Therefore, the recall errors are expected to be low in this study due to the relatively short interval of recall.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 84%

Age of Onset, Nutritional Determinants, and Seasonal Variations in Menarche in Rural Bangladesh

Rah

Shamim

Arju

et al. 2010

J Health Popul Nutr

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Menarche is an important milestone in the development of female adolescents. The study assessed the age at menarche using recall, its seasonality, and association with marital and nutritional status (using midupper arm circumference [MUAC]) among 3,923 female adolescents aged 12-19 years in a rural area of Bangladesh. At the time of assessment, most (88%) adolescents had attained menarche at the mean (standard deviation [SD]) age of 12.8 (1.4) years. Age of onset of menarche among married adolescents (13%) occurred earlier than in those who were unmarried (12.6±1.3 years vs 12.9±1.4 years, p<0.01). Age at menarche was negatively associated with MUAC after adjusting for age and marital status (β=-0.10, p<0.01). More than 50% of the adolescents had an onset of menarche during winter (χ 2 =634.97; p<0.001), with peaks in December and January. In this rural population, the current age at menarche was found to be slightly lower than the previous estimates of 13.0 years in Bangladesh. An early onset of menarche was associated with season and better nutritional status of the female adolescents and may be associated with early marriage.

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“…43 The most important limitation of the current study may be our use of self-reported menarcheal age. Correlations between recalled and recorded menarcheal ages have generally been high (r Ͼ 0.75) over periods of up to 10 years, 44,45 with 60% of girls being able to recall the month and year of menarche over short periods. 46 Additional analyses (data not shown) of 1082 girls in Bogalusa who were examined 2 times after menarche suggested that the reproducibility of menarcheal age in the current study was somewhat lower (r ϭ 0.57), possibly as a result of our lack of information on month of menarche.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Relation of Age at Menarche to Race, Time Period, and Anthropometric Dimensions: The Bogalusa Heart Study

et al. 2002

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ABSTRACT. Objective. To assess secular trends in menarcheal age between 1973 and 1994 and to determine whether childhood levels of height, weight, and skinfold thicknesses can account for racial (white/black) differences in menarcheal age.Methods. Data from 7 cross-sectional examinations of school-aged children, with menarcheal age obtained through interviews, were used for both cross-sectional (11 218 observations) and longitudinal (n ‫؍‬ 2058) analyses. In the latter analyses, the baseline examination was performed between ages 5.0 and 9.9 years, and the mean follow-up was 6 years.Results. Black girls experienced menarche, on average, 3 months earlier than did white girls (12.3 vs 12.6 years), and during the 20-year study period, the median menarcheal age decreased by approximately 9.5 months among black girls versus approximately 2 months among white girls. As compared with 5-to 9-year-old white girls, black girls were taller and weighed more, characteristics that were predictive of a relatively early (before age 11.0 years) menarche. However, even after adjustment for weight, height, and other characteristics, the rate of early menarche remained 1.4-fold higher among black girls than among white girls.Conclusions. Additional study of the determinants of menarcheal age is needed, as the timing of pubertal maturation may influence the risk of various diseases in adulthood. Pediatrics 2002;110(4). URL: http://www. pediatrics.org/cgi/content/full/110/4/e43; menarche, obesity, blacks, height, secular trend.ABBREVIATIONS. BMI, body mass index; RR, rate ratio. B lack girls in the United States undergo sexual development at younger ages than do white girls. [1][2][3][4][5] In a study of 17 000 girls, for example, mean menarcheal ages were 12.2 years (blacks) and 12.9 years (whites), 4 a racial difference consistent with those that have been observed in the development of breast and pubic hair. 2,3 The timing of these events may influence the risk of various diseases in adulthood, and an early menarche has been associated with an increased risk for breast cancer, 6 obesity, 7-9 and spontaneous abortion. 10 The reasons for these racial differences in menarcheal age are uncertain, but several characteristics, such as obesity, 11-14 height, 3,8,13-15 and skeletal maturation, 16 -18 are known to influence sexual development. Furthermore, the dramatic decrease in menarcheal age between the mid-1800s and the mid-1900s 19 may be related to the changes in childhood heights and weights that occurred during this period as a result of improved nutritional status. As compared with similarly aged white girls, black girls are more advanced skeletally (after age 9 years), 20 are taller, 3,21 and are heavier. 3 It is uncertain, however, whether these characteristics account for the earlier sexual development of black girls in the United States.The objectives of the current study were to examine changes in the menarcheal ages of girls between 1973 and 1994 and to determine whether differences between black and white girls are attri...

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Ability of Young Women to Recall Past Body Size and Age at Menarche

Cited by 123 publications

References 19 publications

Secular trends in age at menarche among Caboclo populations from Pará, Amazonia, Brazil: 1930–1980

Secular trends in age at menarche among Caboclo populations from Pará, Amazonia, Brazil: 1930–1980

Age of Onset, Nutritional Determinants, and Seasonal Variations in Menarche in Rural Bangladesh

Relation of Age at Menarche to Race, Time Period, and Anthropometric Dimensions: The Bogalusa Heart Study

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