Early puberty in 11-year-old girls: Millennium Cohort Study findings

Abstract

ObjectiveEarly puberty in girls is linked to some adverse outcomes in adolescence and mid-life. We address two research questions: (1) Are socioeconomic circumstances and ethnicity associated with early onset puberty? (2) Are adiposity and/or psychosocial stress associated with observed associations?DesignLongitudinal data on 5839 girls from the UK Millennium Cohort Study were used to estimate associations between ethnicity, family income, adiposity and psychosocial stress with a marker of puberty.Main outcome measureReported menstruation at age 11 years.ResultsAll quoted ORs are statistically significant. Girls in the poorest income quintile were twice as likely (OR=2.1), and the second poorest quintile nearly twice as likely (OR=1.9) to have begun menstruation compared with girls in the richest income quintile. Estimates were roughly halved on adjustment for Body Mass Index and markers of psychosocial stress (poorest, OR=1.5; second poorest, OR=1.5). Indian girls were over 3 times as likely compared with whites to have started menstruation (OR=3.5) and statistical adjustments did not attenuate estimates. The raised odds of menstruation for Pakistani (OR=1.9), Bangladeshi (OR=3.3) and black African (OR=3.0) girls were attenuated to varying extents, from about a third to a half, on adjustment for income and adiposity.ConclusionsIn contemporary UK, excess adiposity and psychosocial stress were associated with social inequalities in early puberty, while material disadvantage and adiposity were linked to ethnic inequalities in early puberty among girls.

Birth weight, early life weight gain and age at menarche: a systematic review of longitudinal studies

“…Thirteen longitudinal studies , conducted mostly in developed countries, evaluated the associations between birth weight and menarcheal age, reporting risk estimates from regression analysis (Table ). Menarcheal age was significantly associated with birth weight in 10 of the 13 studies , while three studies did not find an association. A Filipino study found no association between age at menarche and absolute birth weight; however, girls born lighter and longer than the sample median weight (3 kg) and length (49 cm), respectively, had the highest hazard of menarche at any given age during the study period (from birth to 15 years; HR = 1.54; p < 0.01, compared to girls born >3 kg and <49 cm) .…”

What triggers puberty?

“…In combination, the candidate factors explored by Kelly et al 2 explained only a minority of the social and ethnic group patterning in menarche timing in the Millennium Cohort Study (table 1). So what other explanations might there be?…”

“…The paper by Kelly et al 2 describes substantial patterning by socioeconomic and ethnic background in the prevalence of early age at menarche (the first menstrual period, a late milestone of puberty in girls). They analysed freely available data from the Millennium Cohort Study, a very large prospective UK birth cohort, enriched for socially disadvantaged groups.…”

“…Kelly et al 2 found that childhood emotional and behavioural difficulties explained more of the social patterning in early menarche timing than did childhood BMI. While acute stress may delay puberty, likely in the same way as it inhibits the hypothalamic–pituitary axis and causes secondary amenorrhoea in adults, a history of adversity in early childhood appears to accelerate reproductive outcomes such as timings of puberty and first birth 5.…”

Effect of Soft Drink, Electronic Media Exposure, Family Income, Pocket Money, and Nutritional Status, on Age at Menarche Among Adolescents in Surakarta

“…Female adolescent facing menarche at a young age will face differences in their later stage in life compared to teenagers experiencing normal puberty period because this is in related to the increasing risk of pre-marital sex and teen pregnancy, low mental in teenagers, heart disease, and other malignant diseases such as ovarian cancer, breast cancer (Kelly et al, 2016).…”