Original research paper age at menarche and affecting bio-social factors among the girls of Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh.

ABSTRACT

The age at which first menstrual bleeding occurs in female, i.e menarche is viewed as an excellent physiological marker of adolescent maturation. The aim of this study is to determine the mean age at menarche among adolescent girls and to assess the influence of some Bio-social parameters affecting it.This study was conducted among 150 adolescent girls in the age group of 10 to 19 years, randomly selected from urban & rural government schools of Lucknow. 75 girls from each school were selected from November 2009 to March 2010. This was a cross sectional descriptive study. Girls were studied about their socioeconomic status, weight, height, place of residence. Out of 150 cases studied 108 cases were having menstruation, most frequent age of menarche being 13 years when 32 cases (29.63%) had its onset. The lowest age was 8 years and highest was 15 year. Mean age at menarche was found to be 12.43 ± 1.49. There seems to be definite association of various factors which modify the age at menarche like socio-economic status, body mass index, place of residence.