The Influence of Socioeconomic and Nutritional Status on Menarche in Nigerian School Girls

Abstract

A study of 352 randomly selected secondary school girls in an urban population in Southern Western Nigeria revealed a mean menarcheal age of 13.94 +/- 1.31 years and that 76.8% of girls attained menarche between ages 13 and 15 years. Age-matched pre- and post-menarcheal girls did not differ significantly in biophysical measurements, however, nutritional status was strongly and positively associated with attainment of menarche. School girls from the upper socio-economic class reached menarche 11 months earlier than the lower socio-economic counterparts. A significant finding of this study is that the declaration rate in age at menarche was slowest in girls from high socio-economic households. This deceleration was not influenced by body mass suggesting that socio-economic factors play a unique role in the secular trend widely reported in menarcheal age.

Overweight and Obesity among Adolescents in Kano, Nigeria

“…The trend of relative low anthropometric measures noted compared to global standard is similar to what is reported in other parts of Africa [13][14][15]. This apparent difference has been attributed to malnutrition and recurrent parasitic infection seen in African children [16,17].…”

“…The median age was 16 years with a range of [13][14][15][16][17][18][19] growth seen in Africans during early adolescence. The low height for age will suggest some degree of stunting.…”

Relative height and weight among children and adolescents of rural southwestern Nigeria

“…The etiology of the linear growth faltering observed in sub-Saharan adolescents is unclear, though the combination of poor nutrition and recurrent infection is most often cited as the primary cause among young children (Cole, 2000; Martorell et al , 1994a). Malaria and helminth infections and anemia from either nutritional or infectious causes are common in the children of sub-Saharan Africa (Abioye-Kuteyi et al , 1997; Beasley et al , 2002; Hautvast et al , 2000; Lwambo et al , 2000; Stoltzfus et al , 1997). Although the home environment for most children does not overtly change as they enter their teens, and the risk of infection remains high, the allocation and consumption of foods in households is likely modified as children increase in age and are more capable of procuring their own foods (Brieger, 1997).…”

Early Puberty in Internationally Adopted Girls: Hormonal and Clinical Markers of Puberty in 276 Girls Examined Biannually over Two Years

“…Studies of age at menarche in different regions of the world and in different socioeconomic settings are shown in figure 5[11,24,25,26,27,28,29,30,31,32,33,34,35,36,37,38,39,40,41,42,43]. Large studies, conducted recently using the status quo method, were preferred for comparison.…”