ABSTRACT
Background: The purpose of this study was to determine the factors influencing age at menarche in sabzevarian girls, for health policy.
Materials and Methods: In this cross-sectional descriptive analytical study, we enrolled 400 girls aged 10-17 years, whose menstruation had started during 6 months before the study; and lived in Sabzevar at least for 3 years ago. Data such as demographic information, height and weight of the girls were collected using a checklist, and analyzed in SPSS 11.5 software. Pearson correlation coefficient test was used to determine relationships, and T test for qualitative variables.
Results: The mean age of the participants, age at menarche, weight, height and body mass index [BMI] were 12.88 +/- 1.26 years, 15.12 +/- 1.53 years, 53 +/- 10.49 kg, 160.49 +/- 0.07 cm, and 20.58 +/- 3.83 kg/m2, respectively. There was a significant correlation between age at menarche, and height [P<0.001, r=0.209], underlying disease [P=0.008], mother's age [P=0.002, r=0.153], body mass index [P=0.026, r= - 0.112] and level of mother's education [P=0.001, r= - 0.164]. There was no significant correlation between age at menarche and weight, mother's job, and father's job.
Conclusion: The results showed that there is a significant correlation between changes in BMI with age at menarche in Sabzevarian female adolescent. But, because of differences between societies, further researches should be conducted to determine exact factors.