Earlier menarcheal age in Spanish girls is related with an increase in body mass index between pre‐pubertal school age and adolescence

Abstract

In our study, high weight in girls is associated with the earliest age at menarche. This becomes a major influence when weight gain occurs between pre-pubertal school age and adolescence.

Early menarche and risk‐taking behavior in Korean adolescent students

“…The figure in the current study is also much smaller than the 17.0% figure reported by a previous study conducted in Finland applying the same standard for early menarche(Kaltiala‐Heino et al, ). Given that the timing of menarche can be affected by nutrition, body mass index, and the socioeconomic environment (Dunger, Ahmed, & Ong, ; Gavela‐Perez, Garces, Navarro‐Sanchez, Lopez Villanueva, & Soriano‐Guillen, ; Wronka & Pawlinska‐Chmara, ), variation between countries and ethnic groups in the rates of early menarche could exist.…”

Age at spermarche: 15‐year trend and its association with body mass index in Chinese school‐aged boys

“…The sampling procedure, as previously described in detail (18)(19), was the same at all CNSSCH time points. The participants were primary and high school boys aged [7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18] years from the same areas in each province. All subjects were selected by stratified cluster sampling, in that sampling took place in classes randomly selected from each grade in the selected school.…”

“…Many studies in girls suggest that the increasing body mass index (BMI) among adolescents appears to coincide with the increasing trend in pubertal timing (7)(8).…”

Association of prepubertal obesity with pubertal development in Chinese girls and boys: A longitudinal study

“…This study included both breast development and menarche as outcome measures for puberty development in girls, so that prepubertal girls of young ages could also be included. Several studies (Gavela‐Pérez et al, ; Ramezani Tehrani et al, ; Sloboda et al, ; Zhai et al, ) have shown that overweight and obesity status is positively correlated with early puberty. Davison, Susman, and Birch () conducted a longitudinal study with a sample of 183 white girls, and demonstrated that girls with higher percent body fat at 5 and 7 years were more likely to experience early pubertal development at 9 years.…”

“…There have been numerous studies of the relationship between body fat and pubertal development, and whether there is a relationship or interaction between them is still the focus of debate. In girls, there have been numerous longitudinal studies demonstrating an inverse association between obesity and puberty timing, as defined by age of menarche, breast development, and pubic hair development (Gavela‐Pérez, Garcés, Navarro‐Sánchez, López; Villanueva, & Soriano‐Guillén, ; Ramezani Tehrani, Mirmiran, Gholami, Moslehi, & Azizi, ; Sloboda, Hart, Doherty, Pennell, & Hickey, ; Zhai et al, ), while a few studies have not found this association (Ferrández et al, ; Mouritsen et al, ). In boys, there have been fewer studies, and the results have been more ambiguous.…”