The Relationship between BMI & Early Menarche in School Going Girls in Nashik Kaur Amrit1, Kathuriya Raminder Kaur2,* 1Assisstant Professor, NDMVP College of Physiotherapy, Nashik 2B P T, NDMVP College of Physiotherapy, Nashik *Corresponding author-Raminder Kaur Kathuriya, Address-D-10 Tucker Awho Enclave, Gondhalenagar, Hadapsar, Pune, E-mail-rinku9183@gmail.com
Online published on 28 September, 2015. Abstract Background Increasing rates of childhood obesity over recent decades have been reported in many industrialized countries, and a range of associated health risks has been identified. Among them is earlier puberty in girls that it has major public health implications Menarche is a relatively late marker of puberty and is a well validated indicator of pubertal timing. However, there is a lack of standardized comparable data to evaluate the role of BMI in affecting age at menarche across different countries. Aim of Study To investigate the relationship of BMI and age of menarche. Objective The objective is to find out whether there is association of early menarche with obesity and overweight. Materials and Method Cross sectional descriptive study was conducted on 200 school girls of 8–16 years of age in Nashik. Informed consent, relevant data like demographic information, height, weight, B.M.I and age at menarche was noted. Subjects were divided on the basis of age of menarche into early (8-11yrs) and late maturers (12-16yrs) and both maturers were further divided on the basis of BMI into overweight and underweight. Results Unpaired t-test was used. Out of the 200 females in the study population, 149(74.5%) were post menarcheal, while 51(25.5%) were pre menarcheal. Anthropometric indices and their relationship with menarche showed that the mean height, weight and B.M.I. of the menstruated girls were all significantly higher than those of non-menstruated ones. The youngest age at menarche was 9 years and oldest was 16 years. Conclusion There is association between early menarche and B.M.I. Menarcheal girls showed higher body mass index than the non menarcheal ones. Top Keywords BMI, early menarche. Top |