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Age at menarche and body mass index: a population study
Dror Mandel1, Eyal Zimlichman, Francis B Mimouni
1Medical Corps, Israel Defense Forces, Israel. mandelrd@netvision.net.il
Objective:
To test the hypothesis that age at menarche is inversely related to body mass index (BMI).
Population And Methods:
A questionnaire was filled in by 11,293 young women at the time of discharge from compulsory military service, in order to determine the self-reported age at onset of menarche. The participants were weighed and measured and BMI was calculated. Obesity was defined as BMI >30 and leanness as BMI <20.
Results:
The age at menarche was significantly and inversely correlated with BMI (R = -0.11, p <0.001). The age at menarche of obese women (12.9+/-1.3 years) was significantly lower than that of non-obese, non-lean women (13.3+/-1.4 years), who themselves had a lower age at menarche than lean women (13.5+/-1.4 years) (p <0.001).
Conclusions:
We conclude from our data that the relationship between BMI and pubertal development in girls appears to be a continuum.