A Prospective Cross-Sectional Study to Assess the Association of Age of Menarche with Body Mass Index in Adolescent Girls of Urban and Rural Schools of Vijayapura, North Karnataka

ABSTRACT

Background: Overweight and increased Body MassIndex (BMI) have been among the major changes ingirls and is one of the likely factors affecting themenarche age. Aim and Objectives: To determinecorrelation of age at menarche with BMI in adolescentgirls of urban and rural schools of Vijayapura, NorthKarnataka. Material and Methods:Aprospective crosssectional study was conducted by Department ofObstetrics and Gynaecology, Shri. B. M. Patil MedicalCollege Hospital and Research Centre, BLDE (Deemedst thto be University), between 1 July 2019 to 29 February2020.Girls below the age of 19 years who had attainedmenarche were included. Height and weight weremeasured, and BMI was calculated. Statistical analysiswas carried out in SPSS software, version 23.0 andMicrosoft 2010. Correlation between age at menarcheand BMI was assessed in adolescent girls of urban andrural schools of Vijayapura. Results: The mean age atmenarche among adolescent girls of urban and ruralschools was about 13.6 ± 1.2 years. Among allparticipants, 60.2% were from urban area and 39.8%were from rural area. The mean age of the menarchewas 13.8 ± 1.2 in rural population and 13.5 ± 1.3 inurban population (p value <0.001). Among all studyparticipants, 48.3% had normal BMI; however, 29.8%,15.4%, 5.8% and 0.7% were underweight, severeunderweight, overweight, and obese respectively.Majority of girls had normal BMI in both urban (49.2%)and rural settings (47.0%). Conclusion: A statisticallysignificant association (p< 0.05) was noticed betweenonset of menarche and area of residence. There was aninverse correlation between BMI and age at menarche,although this was not statistically significant.