Improvement in the biological standard of living in 20th century Korea: Evidence from age at menarche

Sohn, Kitae

doi:10.1002/ajhb.22882

Cited by 25 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 47 publications

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“…The size is not negligible. For example, the urban residence is widely known to be related to earlier menarche compared to rural residence (see references in table 2 in Sohn, ), including in our case: the coefficient for the urban residence was −0.127 (Column 1 of Table A1). Thus, given the birth order, having two fewer siblings displayed the same relation to age at menarche as living in an urban (rather than rural) area.…”

Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 47%

“…In a sense, these variables more accurately reflected the growth environment than other variables, such as parental education or income, because they reflected what was used rather than what could be available. Menarche is known to be related to the standard of living in childhood in general (Sohn, , ) and nutritional status in particular (Kyweluk, Georgiev, Borja, Gettler, & Kuzawa, ). Hence, we added five categories of self‐reported health status in childhood and whether the respondent experienced hunger in childhood.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Having more siblings delays menarche in Indonesia

Kim

Sohn

2018

American J Hum Biol

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Objectives: Tanner (1968, Scientific American, 218(1), [21][22][23][24][25][26][27] concluded that having more siblings delayed menarche, but many subsequent studies have reported diverging results. We thus aimed to investigate whether the initial conclusion remains valid by controlling for sibship size and birth order together, analyzing a large number of observations, drawing on a nationally representative sample, adjusting for childhood socioeconomic status, and considering a developing country. We additionally aimed to assess the importance of sibling sex for age at menarche. Methods: We analyzed 10 212 ever-married women aged 20+ in the last wave of the Indonesian Family Life Survey. We regressed age at menarche on sibship size, birth spacing, and childhood socioeconomic status. We subsequently divided sibship size into the numbers of brothers and sisters. Results: Having more siblings was related to later menarche, and the relationship was strengthened when the birth order was controlled for. In addition, those born earlier experienced menarche later. Sibling sex was irrelevant to age at menarche, boosting the importance of sibship size itself. Conclusions: Our results support the earlier conclusion that having more siblings delays menarche. K E Y W O R D Sbirth order, Indonesia, life history, menarche, resource dilution, sibling

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Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 47%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Having more siblings delays menarche in Indonesia

Kim

Sohn

2018

American J Hum Biol

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“…Alternatively, the reductions in female stature following the Black Death might actually reflect improvements in diet or health following the epidemic. In contemporary populations, improvements in nutrition and reduced disease burden have been associated with earlier menarche (Karapanou & Papadimitriou, ; Sohn, ). Further, in some contemporary populations, positive associations have been found between age at menarche and height (though it should be noted this positive relationship appears to be true for industrialized countries but not for small‐scale and agrarian populations in which it has been assessed) (McIntyre & Kacerosky, ; McIntyre, ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Stress, sex, and plague: Patterns of developmental stress and survival in pre‐ and post‐Black Death London

DeWitte

2017

American J Hum Biol

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Objectives: Previous research revealed declines in survivorship in London before the Black Death (c. 1346Death (c. -1353, and improvements in survivorship following the epidemic. These trends indicate that there were declines in general levels of health before the Black Death and improvements thereof afterwards. This study expands on previous research by examining whether changes in survivorship were consistent between the sexes, and how patterns of developmental stress markers changed before and after the Black Death. Materials and Methods:This study uses samples from London cemeteries dated to one of three periods: Early Pre-Black Death (1000-1200 AD, n 5 255), Late PreBlack Death (1200-1250 AD, n 5 247), or Post-Black Death (1350-1540 AD n 5 329). Temporal trends in survivorship are assessed via Kaplan-Meier survival analysis, and trends in tibial length (as a proxy for stature) and linear enamel hypoplasia (LEH) are assessed using t-tests and Chi-square tests, respectively.Results: Survivorship for both sexes decreased before the Black Death and increased afterwards. For males, LEH frequencies increased and stature decreased before the epidemic, and LEH declined and stature increased after the Black Death. For females, the only significant change with respect to developmental stress markers was a decrease in stature after the Black Death.Conclusions: These results might reflect variation between the sexes in sensitivity to stressors, the effects of nutrition on pubertal timing, disproportionate access to dietary resources for males in the aftermath of the Black Death, the disproportionate deaths of frail individuals during the epidemic, or some combination of these factors. | I NT ROD UCTI ONRecent research has yielded important insights about the 14 th -century Black Death, one of the most devastating epidemics in history and the first outbreak of what is often referred to as the Second Pandemic of Plague. Molecular evidence from 14 th -century Black Death burials confirms the long-held (though previously strongly contested) assumption that the Black Death was caused by Yersinia pestis, the bacterium that causes bubonic plague in living populations (Bos et al., 2011;Haensch et al., 2010;Kacki, Rahalison, Rajerison, Ferroglio, & Bianucci, 2011;Raoult et al., 2000;Schuenemann et al., 2011). There is also molecular evidence that Y. pestis infected individuals in the Bronze age (Rasmussen et al., 2015), during the 6 th -century AD Plague of Justinian (Harbeck et al., 2013;Wagner et al., 2014;Wiechmann & Grupe, 2005), and in outbreaks of plague subsequent to the Black Death in the medieval and early modern periods (Bos et al., 2016;Tran et al., 2011). Plague continues to kill people every year. During a recent outbreak in Madagascar, for example, there were nearly 500 reported cases and over 80 deaths (Bertherat, 2015). Plague has thus affected humans, at times severely, for over 5000 years.Despite the interest that plague has generated among generations of scholars from a variety of disciplines, some o...

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“…15e18 Korean women have shown a fast rate of decline in menarche, which is different than noted in other countries. 19 Despite the fact that the proportion of girls who experience menarche before age of 12 years is growing globally, knowledge of adverse adolescent health outcomes related to this change is limited. Accordingly, we explored compositional change of AAM and association between AAM and adverse adolescent health indicators by leveraging a national population-based sample of adolescent girls born in the 1990s and 2000s.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Association of Early Menarche with Adolescent Health in the Setting of Rapidly Decreasing Age at Menarche

Choe

Yun

et al. 2020

Journal of Pediatric and Adolescent Gynecology

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Study Objective: This study aimed to investigate the association between age at menarche (AAM) and adverse health indicators in adolescent girls. Design: A retrospective cohort study. Setting: Population-based survey data. Participants: A total of 319,437 female participants aged 12-18 years from the Korea Youth Risk Behaviour Web-based Survey. Interventions and Main Outcome Measures: We assessed associations between AAM (categorized as #10, 11, and $12) and health indicators (poor self-rated health, high psychological stress, unhappiness, sexual initiation, and pregnancy). Covariates were individual-level (bodyweight, living with family, parent's education, household wealth, and presence of parents and siblings) and community-level factors (year of birth, single-sex education and level of school, urbanization level of school area, year of survey, and regional deprivation). Odds ratios (ORs) for each adverse health indicator were examined by each AAM group using multivariable regression analyses. For pregnancy, we calculated relative risks (RRs) using a log-binomial regression model. Results: Age at menarche was !12 in 42% of our study population. Nearly one-half of the girls born in the early 2000s went through menarche before the age of 12 years, whereas only one-third of girls born in the early 1990s went through menarche before the age of 12 years. Girls who experienced menarche at age #10 or age 11 years were more likely to show self-rated poor health

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Improvement in the biological standard of living in 20th century Korea: Evidence from age at menarche

Abstract: Age at menarche is an appropriate index of change in the general standard of living in South Korea over the 20th century. Am. J. Hum. Biol. 29:e22882, 2017. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Cited by 25 publications

References 47 publications

Having more siblings delays menarche in Indonesia

Having more siblings delays menarche in Indonesia

Stress, sex, and plague: Patterns of developmental stress and survival in pre‐ and post‐Black Death London

Association of Early Menarche with Adolescent Health in the Setting of Rapidly Decreasing Age at Menarche

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