Ersoy B, Balkan C, Gunay T, Onag A, Egemen A
Division of Pediatric Endocrinology, Department of Pediatrics, Faculty of Medicine, Celal Bayar University, Manisa, Turkey.
Early Hum Dev. 2004 Feb;76(2):115-25. doi: 10.1016/j.earlhumdev.2003.11.001.
The aim of this study was to determine the age at menarche, the menarcheal features, and the association between menarcheal age and socioeconomic status in an urban area in Turkey. In addition, we tried to assess whether there is a relationship between age at menarche and body composition.
We asked some questions about menarche of 1017 female adolescent students in the high schools of Manisa region. Height and weight were measured. The body mass index (BMI; kg/m2) was used as an index of relative weight. Adolescent girls were grouped into three socioeconomic status according to the educational and occupational levels of their parents. The age at menarche and the menarcheal pattern were evaluated according to the socioeconomic status.
The ages of girls involved in the study ranged between 14 and 18 years, with a mean of 15.7+/-1.1 years. Although the menarcheal age was found to be lower in girls with higher socioeconomic status, there was no significant difference between the three different socioeconomic status. In all of the three groups, menarche was more common in summer and fall than in spring and winter. Although the mother was an important source of knowledge in all groups, it was significantly more important in the group with high socioeconomic status. Adolescent girls with low socioeconomic status had fewer premenstrual complaints. However, there was no significant difference between the groups. We found an inverse correlation between menarcheal age and postmenarcheal weight and the BMI (r=-0.14, p=0.000). However, there was no correlation between menarcheal age and postmenarcheal height.
These results indicate that as the social status differences decrease, the difference observed in menarcheal age and pattern disappears in urban areas of developing countries. Menarcheal age may be an indicator of socioeconomic development. It does not influence postmenarcheal height; however, as menarcheal age decreases, BMI increases.
本研究旨在确定土耳其某城市地区的初潮年龄、初潮特征以及初潮年龄与社会经济地位之间的关联。此外，我们试图评估初潮年龄与身体组成之间是否存在关系。
我们询问了马尼萨地区高中的1017名女性青少年学生关于初潮的一些问题。测量了身高和体重。体重指数（BMI；千克/平方米）被用作相对体重的指标。根据青少年女孩父母的教育和职业水平，将她们分为三个社会经济地位组。根据社会经济地位评估初潮年龄和初潮模式。
参与研究的女孩年龄在14至18岁之间，平均年龄为15.7±1.1岁。尽管发现社会经济地位较高的女孩初潮年龄较低，但三个不同社会经济地位组之间没有显著差异。在所有三个组中，初潮在夏季和秋季比在春季和冬季更常见。尽管在所有组中母亲都是重要的知识来源，但在社会经济地位高的组中母亲的重要性显著更高。社会经济地位低的青少年女孩经前不适较少。然而，各组之间没有显著差异。我们发现初潮年龄与初潮后体重和BMI呈负相关（r = -0.14，p = 0.000）。然而，初潮年龄与初潮后身高之间没有相关性。
这些结果表明，随着社会地位差异的减小，发展中国家城市地区在初潮年龄和模式上观察到的差异消失。初潮年龄可能是社会经济发展的一个指标。它不影响初潮后的身高；然而，随着初潮年龄的降低，BMI增加。
