Age at menarche in schoolgirls with and without excess weight

Abstract

Objective: To evaluate the age at menarche of girls, with or without weight excess, attending private and public schools in a city in Southeastern Brazil. Methods: This was a cross-sectional study comparing the age at menarche of 750 girls from private schools with 921 students from public schools, aged between 7 and 18 years. The menarche was reported by the status quo method and age at menarche was estimated by logarithmic transformation. The girls were grouped according to body mass index (BMI) cut-off points: (thin + normal) and (overweight + obesity). In order to ensure that they belonged to different strata, 328 parents of these schools answered a questionnaire to rate the student's socioeconomic level.Results: Menarche was reported by 883 girls. Although they belonged to different classes (p < 0.001), there was no difference in the nutritional diagnosis (p = 0.104) between them. There was also no difference in age at menarche between the girls studying in private (12.1 years, 95% CI: 12.0-12.2) and public schools (12.2 years, 95% CI:12.1-12.3; p = 0.383). When evaluated by nutritional status, there was difference only in the age at menarche between girls from private schools with excess weight and without excess weight (11.6 and 12.3 years; p < 0.001). The girls with excess weight attending private schools also had earlier an menarche than those attending public schools (respectively, 11.6 and 12.1 years; p = 0.016). Conclusions: Although the students from private schools belonged to a higher socioeconomic status, there is currently no longer a large gap between them and girls from public schools regarding nutritional and socioeconomic factors that may influence the age at menarche. ଝ Como citar este artigo: Castilho SD, Nucci LB. Age at menarche in schoolgirls with and without excess weight. J Pediatr (Rio J). 2015;91:75---80.

A study of the factors affecting the receding age of onset of menarche in young girls

“…This indicates that some other factors, apart from diet are responsible for predicting the age at menarche. Our finding is supported by the study done by Castilho SD et al 27 However, our findings were contrasting with those of the studies done by Gunther ALB et al, which have linked animal fat and protein intake to lower age at menarche. 28 We found no significant association with frequency of milk intake and early age at menarche (p=0.797).…”

Atividade física, sobrepeso e pressão arterial: associação independente e combinada em adolescentes

“…Apesar de ter sido realizada seguindo todas as recomendações, a medida da PA em um único dia é uma limitação, pois pode não identificar os reais valores 3 . Por fim, fatores potencialmente associados ao IMC e à PA em adolescentes, como estágio maturacional 20 , genética 2,16 e hábitos alimentares 2,16 não foram analisados.…”

“…Identificou-se uma prevalência de sobrepeso, obesidade e AF insuficiente de 19,9% (IC95%: 17,8-22,0), 7,9% (IC95%: 6,5-9,3) e 68% (IC95%: 65,5-70,5), respectivamente. As prevalências de PA sistólica (PAS) e diastólica (PAD) aumentadas foram de 16,4% (IC95%: 14,4-18,4) e 18,5% (IC95%: 16,[4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20]6), respectivamente. Na análise independente, apenas o sobrepeso e a obesidade permaneceram associados à PAS e PAD (p<005), tendo os adolescentes obesos mais chance de apresentarem PAS (OR: 9,96; IC95%: 6,29-15,77) e PAD (OR: 5,68; IC95%: 3,65-8,86) aumentadas.…”