Age at menarche and its secular trend in urban and rural girls in Poland

Abstract

Menarcheal age of 5546 Warsaw girls studied in 1976 was estimated by probit analysis as 12.73+/-0.03 SD 1.10 and of 7771 rural girls studied during 1976-1978 as 13.40+/-0.02 SD 1.20. The difference was 0.67+/-0.04. The difference between the groups from Warsaw and rural areas where fathers had only primary education was 0.57+/-0.07 year, while that between the groups where fathers had the highest education in both localities was only 0.31+/-0.09. When in both environments the groups were equated both for primary fathers' education and also number of children in the family, the differences in menarcheal age were 0.37+/-0.28, 0.49+/-0.11 and 0.47+/-0.14 in families with one, two and three children, respectively. In rural areas the effects of fathers' education on menarcheal age of daughters was much higher than in Warsaw. The secular trend from the mid-1960s to the mid-1970s was 0.25 years per decade in Warsaw and 0.64 years per decade in rural areas, suggesting a decrease of social differences in maturation rate of Polish girls. Menarcheal age is sensitive to even small differences in living conditions.

Early Life Circumstances and Their Impact on Menarche and Menopause

“…One explanation postulated for the delayed menarche that is found among girls in rural areas is their increased levels of physical activity compared with those from urban areas [49]. Results from studies of the relationship between family size and pubertal timing have been inconsistent [50], with some finding a positive association[39,42,47,51] and others not [40,50]. …”

Social background and age at menarche in Portuguese university students: A note on the secular changes in Portugal

“…This biological event is the outcome of a number of social and biological factors and mean menarcheal age appears to be a particularly sensitive indicator of the biosocial status of a population (Dann and Roberts, 1993;Lindgren, 1976;Bielicki and Welon, 1982;Laska-Mierzejewska et al, 1982;Vienna and Capucci, 1994).…”

Secular trends in age at menarche among Caboclo populations from Pará, Amazonia, Brazil: 1930–1980

“…This biological event is the outcome of a number of social, ecological, and biological factors, and the mean menarcheal age appears to be a particularly sensitive indicator of the biosocial status of a population (Bielicki and Welon, 1982;Laska-Mierzejewska et al, 1982). Menarche is also a sociocultural event shaped and constructed by cultural institutions such as religion, science, and the media (Chandra and Chaturvedi, 1992;Laws, 1990;Paige and Paige, 1981).…”