Age at menarche and its association with dysglycemia in Korean middle-aged women

Abstract

ObjectiveRecent studies have demonstrated that earlier menarche is associated with increased risks of prediabetes and diabetes in white women; however, the associations have not been fully explored in Asian populations. We investigated the associations between age at menarche and prediabetes and/or diabetes in Korean middle-aged women.MethodsThis was a cross-sectional study of 2,039 premenopausal and postmenopausal women aged 44 to 56 years who visited the health promotion center for medical checkups. Participants were divided into three groups based on age at menarche: early (<13 y), average (13-16 y), and late (>16 y).ResultsThe mean (SD) age at menarche was 14.6 (1.6) years. Of 2,039 women, 820 and 85 women had prediabetes (impaired fasting glucose and/or 5.7%-6.4% glycated hemoglobin) and diabetes, respectively. On logistic regression analysis, earlier menarche was significantly associated with prediabetes (odds ratio [OR], 1.80; 95% CI, 1.24-2.61; P = 0.002), diabetes (OR, 2.43; 95% CI, 1.04-5.69; P = 0.04), and dysglycemia (OR, 1.85; 95% CI, 1.28-2.66; P = 0.001), after adjusting for a number of confounding factors, compared with average age at menarche. On linear regression analysis, earlier age at menarche was significantly associated with increased fasting insulin, homeostatic model assessment for insulin resistance, homeostatic model assessment for β-cell function, body mass index, and waist circumference.ConclusionsAge at menarche is inversely associated with various forms of dysglycemia. A history of earlier menarche may be helpful in predicting prediabetes and subsequent diabetes in Korean women.

Association between age at menarche and diabetes in Korean post-menopausal women: results from the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (2007-2009)

“…It is consistent with a report of Lim et al [9], which showed statistically significant association between early age at menarche and type 2 diabetes after further adjustment for BMI. In contrast, Baek et al [15] reported that significance on association between early age at menarche and diabetes disappeared after additionally adjusting for adiposity. However, they did not suggest adiposity as a mediating factor due to small number of diabetes patients.…”

“…Several large prospective cohort studies have demonstrated that early menarche is associated with increased risk of diabetes in adulthood [27,28]. Very recently, cross-sectional studies on Korean women have reported the association between early menarche and diabetes prevalence [9,15], implying that early menarche may exacerbate glucose metabolism and cause diabetes. However, other studies reported inconsistent results that age at menarche is not associated with diabetes in African-American and China women [10,11].…”

“…One study [9] was conducted in young and middle-aged Korean women, which may include pre-menopausal mostly. The other study [15] found inverse association of earlier age at menarche and diabetes in middle-aged Korean women belonging to the middle class. In line with these studies, our study added supporting evidence on association between early menarche age and diabetes in middle and older-aged Korean women.…”

“…arche increases the risk of diabetes in young and middle-aged Korean women [9,15]. However, there are some limitations regarding size of population and their heterogeneous characteristics such as menopause status and age.…”

Relationship of menstrual disorders with nutritional status of college girls from Bankura District, West Bengal, India.

“…In the previous studies conducted at different countries reported that the AAM is lower among the girls of Mexico [30], France [31] and higher among the girls of Brazil [32], Korea [33], Uganda [34], Ethiopia, [35], Malaysia [36], Kuwait [37], Jordan [38], Nigeria [39], Bangladesh [40], China [41] and Indonesia [42] (Fig. 3).…”