Cohort-based analysis of maternal age at menarche in relation to young adult offspring anthropometric and metabolic parameters.

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.