Cohort-based analysis of maternal age at menarche in relation to young adult offspring anthropometric and metabolic parameters
Related Experiment Video
Updated: Oct 11, 2025
Assessment of Child Anthropometry in a Large Epidemiologic Study
Published on: February 2, 2017
Zahra Jalali1,2, Saeed Bahrampour3, Parvin Khalili4,5
1Non-Communicable Diseases Research Center, Rafsanjan University of Medical Sciences, Rafsanjan, Iran.
Insights
Maternal age at menarche influences offspring height in males and weight in females. This study reveals sex-specific intergenerational effects on anthropometric measures, but not metabolic health, in young adults.
Area of Science:
- Reproductive Endocrinology
- Human Genetics
- Public Health
Background:
- Age at menarche is linked to adult cardiometabolic risk, adiposity, and stature.
- Transgenerational effects of maternal age at menarche (MAM) on offspring beyond childhood are understudied.
- Existing research primarily focuses on early life anthropometric outcomes.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the relationship between maternal age at menarche (MAM) and anthropometric and metabolic parameters in young adult offspring (aged 15-35).
- To explore potential sex-specific intergenerational effects of MAM.
- To analyze these associations within a Persian population cohort.
Main Methods:
- A cohort-based cross-sectional study involving 1139 mother-young adult dyads from the Rafsanjan Cohort Study (PERSIAN cohort).
- Maternal age at menarche (MAM) categorized as early (<12 years), normal (12-14 years), and late (>14 years).
- Bivariate and multiple logistic regression models used to assess associations with offspring anthropometric and metabolic parameters.
Main Results:
- Early MAM was significantly associated with increased odds of tall stature in male offspring.
- Late MAM was significantly associated with reduced odds of overweight/obesity and abdominal obesity in female offspring.
- No significant associations were found between MAM and offspring metabolic indices (metabolic syndrome, FBS, HDL, TG).
Conclusions:
- Maternal age at menarche is associated with offspring anthropometric measures in a sex-differential manner in young adulthood.
- The study provides evidence for intergenerational effects of MAM on offspring anthropometry.
- No significant relationship was observed between MAM and key metabolic indices in offspring.
Objectives:
Age of menarche is a determinant factor of cardiometabolic risk, adiposity and stature at adulthood. However, little is known about the transgenerational effects of age of menarche, especially beyond childhood of any offspring, and the studies remain limited to anthropometric outcomes in children at birth or before adolescence. In the present study, we aim to investigate the relationship of maternal age at menarche (MAM) with anthropometric and metabolic parameters in the young adult offspring (aged 15-35 years) in a Persian population.
Design, Patients And Measurements:
In this cohort-based cross-sectional study, we recruited 1139 mother-young adult dyads enroled in Rafsanjan Cohort Study (RCS) at adult RCS (aged 35-70 years) and youth RCS (aged 15-35 years) as part of the comprehensive PERSIAN (Prospective Epidemiological Research Studies in IrAN). In this study, MAM was categorized to early (MAM < 12 years), normal (12 ≤ MAM ≤ 14) and late menarche (MAM > 14 years). For these analyses, bivariate and multiple logistic regression models were used to investigate the relationships between late or early MAM and offspring anthropometric and metabolic parameters.
Results:
Early MAM displayed a significant association with an increased odds ratio (OR) of tall stature adjusting for sex, age, socioeconomic status index, maternal age at birth and maternal height (as genetically determined factor). Sensitivity analysis by sex indicated this relationship to be specific to male offspring only (adjusted OR: 1.84 95% CI: 1.13-3.00, p value: .014). In addition, late MAM displayed a significant association with reduced OR of overweight/obesity and abdominal obesity in daughters only (obesity adjusted OR: 0.49, 95% CI: 0.27-0.88, p value: .018, abdominal obesity adjusted OR: 0.44, 95% CI: 0.23-0.82, p value: .010). dose-response analysis by categorization of MAM, further supported our results. On the contrary, our analyses do not support a significant relationship between MAM and youth metabolic indices, that is, metabolic syndrome, fasting blood sugar (FBS), high-density lipoprotein (HDL) and triglyceride (TG).
Conclusions:
The results of the present study indicate an association of maternal age of menarche with anthropometric measures of offspring in young adulthood in a sex differential manner. The data does not support a significant relationship between the metabolic indices FBS, TG and HDL in offspring with MAM. Overall, this study provides evidence for the intergenerational effects of age at menarche in the development of anthropometric measures in offspring in young adulthood (15-35), which is the first study of this kind in this age range.
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