Determining the timing of pubertal onset via a multicohort analysis of growth

Abstract

Objective Growth-based determination of pubertal onset timing would be cheap and practical. We aimed to determine this timing based on pubertal growth markers. Secondary aims were to estimate the differences in growth between cohorts and identify the role of overweight in onset timing. Design This multicohort study includes data from three Finnish cohorts—the Type 1 Diabetes Prediction and Prevention (DIPP, N = 2,825) Study, the Special Turku Coronary Risk Factor Intervention Project (STRIP, N = 711), and the Boy cohort (N = 66). Children were monitored for growth and Tanner staging (except in DIPP). Methods The growth data were analyzed using a Super-Imposition by Translation And Rotation growth curve model, and pubertal onset analyses were run using a time-to-pubertal onset model. Results The time-to-pubertal onset model used age at peak height velocity (aPHV), peak height velocity (PHV), and overweight status as covariates, with interaction between aPHV and overweight status for girls, and succeeded in determining the onset timing. Cross-validation showed a good agreement (71.0% for girls, 77.0% for boys) between the observed and predicted onset timings. Children in STRIP were taller overall (girls: 1.7 [95% CI: 0.9, 2.5] cm, boys: 1.0 [0.3, 2.2] cm) and had higher PHV values (girls: 0.13 [0.02, 0.25] cm/year, boys: 0.35 [0.21, 0.49] cm/year) than those in DIPP. Boys in the Boy cohort were taller (2.3 [0.3, 4.2] cm) compared with DIPP. Overweight girls showed pubertal onset at 1.0 [0.7, 1.4] year earlier compared with other girls. In boys, there was no such difference. Conclusions The novel modeling approach provides an opportunity to evaluate the Tanner breast/genital stage–based pubertal onset timing in cohort studies including longitudinal data on growth but lacking pubertal follow-up.

Virtual Growing Child (VGC): A general normative comparative system via quantitative dynamic MRI for quantifying pediatric regional respiratory anomalies with application in thoracic insufficiency syndrome (TIS)

“…10-12 years for females is a special growth range, the growth rate for females continues to be greater than males between 10 and 12 years of age. Previous research [44,45] also show the similar observation that after 13 years of age, the growth spurt of females generally is completed and the growth spurt of males is in its early phase. Those publications [44,45] can only give a global evaluation of growth, however, QdMRI first time gives deeper insight via regional measurements between male and female groups.…”

Why age categories in youth sport should be eliminated: Insights from performance development of youth female long jumpers

“…Girls reach peak growth aged 12.0 years, which is approximately 2 years earlier than boys ( Syrjälä et al, 2021 ). Therefore, and due to the lack of data on female athletes, female RAE development should be studied separately.…”

What is the role of puberty in the development of islet autoimmunity and progression to type 1 diabetes?

“…Only time intervals with more than one pubertal progression are presented that sensitivity analysis with a BC2 definition gave similar results to those of BC1, suggesting possible contribution of other autoantibodies than IAA, GADA, or IA-2A in the ICA + BC1 group, e.g., zinc transporter 8 autoantibodies. Another limitation is that the study did not involve a physical pubertal follow-up, and the pubertal onset timings were estimated on the basis of a validated growth assessment method [28]. The effect of IA on later growth, including pubertal growth, is unknown, which may in turn influence the pubertal timing assessment.…”

“…Age at pubertal onset was assessed based on individual growth characteristics—peak height velocity (cm per year) and age at peak height velocity (years)—and on overweight status (based on ISO-BMI [ 26 ]) before the pubertal growth spurt. The assessment was carried out using a previously constructed and validated time-to-pubertal onset model [ 28 ]. The children were also divided (at the 33rd and 67th percentiles) into three equally sized groups based on age at pubertal onset; the age cut-off points for the groups were 10.0 and 11.0 years for girls and 11.3 and 11.8 years for boys.…”

“…We investigated the sensitivity of the results in several ways. The possibility of an error in the growth-based estimation of pubertal onset was evaluated by fitting the same model to ten datasets, with the timing of onset randomly drawn from a normal distribution corresponding to the individual’s pubertal onset prediction interval obtained from the time-to-pubertal onset model [ 28 ]. Results from the models were combined using Rubin’s Rules [ 32 ].…”