Biological standards of living

Age at menarche vs height

Bibliographic Data

ID13922362
AuthorsKitae Sohn (0000-0001-5671-4625, Konkuk University, corresponding author)
Year2016
Volume44
Issue1
Pages21-27
Publication date2016-01-28
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueAnnals of Human Biology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0301-4460 • E-ISSN: 1464-5033
PublisherInforma (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.3109/03014460.2016.1147596
PMID26820048
OpenAlexW2273774364
LanguageEN
Citations received11
References cited32

Background Researchers typically use height to understand the growth environment, but recent evidence suggests that height does not reflect it well; height can even be misleading. Aim This study compared age at menarche and height to assess which better reflected the growth environment. Subjects and methods This study employed the Indonesian Family Life Survey to extract information on age at menarche from 7831 women and height from 7946 men, both aged 15-49 and born in 1944-1983. It drew on GDP per capita in childhood to represent the growth environment. The means of the two anthropometrics by birth decade were calculated. The trends in the two were then compared and each was regressed on the growth environment and a time trend. Results Between 1944-1953 and 1974-1983, the mean age at menarche decreased from 14.5 to 13.9, while height increased from 160.9 cm to 162.6 cm. Despite the expected broad trends, age at menarche was more closely related to the growth environment than height in graphs, correlation coefficients and regression results. Conclusion The results recommend using more than one anthropometric to investigate changes in the biological standards of living

Anthropometry · Geography · Indonesian · Menarche · Per capita · Population · Birth, Development, and Health · Demography · Medicine · Reproductive Physiology in Livestock