Age at menarche of adolescent girls and the neighbourhood socioeconomic status of their school area

Abstract

Purpose

To assess the association between abnormal timing of menarche among adolescent girls and neighbourhood socioeconomic status of their school area.

Materials and methods

Our analysis included 187,024 girls aged 15–18 years from the Korea Youth Risk Behaviour Web-Based Survey (KYRBS) from 2007 to 2015. Early and late menarche were defined as menarche before 11 years and no menarche by age 14 years, respectively. The deprivation index values for the areas where the schools were located were used as an indicator of neighbourhood socioeconomic status based on the 2005 national census data. We calculated odds ratios (OR) for early and late menarche using a multinomial logistic regression model. Covariates included body mass index, parental education, single or stepparents, siblings, household wealth, year of birth, survey year, and urbanisation.

Results

Mean age at menarche was 12 years. The overall proportions of early and late menarche were 11.3% and 3.3%, respectively. When divided into four quartile groups based on the socioeconomic deprivation index, 11.3% of girls in the most deprived quartile and 10.6% in the least deprived area showed early menarche. The prevalence of late menarche did not differ across the deprivation index quartiles of school area. Attendance at schools located in highly deprived areas was associated with up to 10% higher risk of early menarche. This positive association was not evident for late menarche.

Conclusion

Among contemporary Korean girls, socioeconomic deprivation of the school area was associated with earlier puberty. This finding highlights the potential role of the socioeconomic environment of schools in women’s lifetime health.

摘要

目的：评估少女月经初潮的异常时间与她们学校附近的社会经济地位之间的关系。

材料和方法：我们的分析包括2007年至2015年韩国青少年风险行为网络调查（KYRBS）中的187024名15至18岁的女孩。月经初潮提前和推迟分别定义为11岁之前初潮和14岁之前无初潮。根据2005年全国人口普查数据, 学校所在地区的贫困指数值被用来作为社区社会经济状况的指标。我们使用多元Logistic回归模型计算月经初潮提前和推迟的几率（OR）。协变量包括身体质量指数、父母文化程度、单亲或继父母、兄弟姐妹、家庭财富、出生年份、调查年份和城市化。

结果: 月经初潮的平均年龄为12岁。月经初潮提前和推迟的总比例分别为11.3%和3.3%。根据社会经济贫困指数四分位数分为四个组, 最贫困地区的11.3%和最不贫困地区的10.6%的女孩月经初潮提前。月经初潮推迟的发生率在学校地区的贫困指数四分位数之间并无差异。在位于高度贫困地区的学校上学与月经初潮提前风险升高10%有关。这种正相关关系在月经初潮推迟中并不明显。

结论：在当代韩国女孩中, 学校地区的社会经济贫困与青春期提前有关。这一发现强调了学校的社会经济环境对妇女一生健康的潜在作用。

Keywords:

• Menarche
• adolescent
• deprivation
• school

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The epidemiological data used in this study are publicly available from the Korea Youth Risk Behaviour Web-Based Survey (http://www.kdca.go.kr/yhs/).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea (2022R1A2C1006364), Korea University (K2025301), and Kangwon National University (520150340).