CoChat
Sign Up
Cited by 249Hypothalamic control of reproductive hormonesObesity, Physical Activity, DietAdolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health

Interpreting the Continued Decline in the Average Age at Menarche: Results from Two Nationally Representative Surveys of U.S. Girls Studied 10 Years Apart

Anderson, Sarah E., Must, Aviva·2005·The Journal of Pediatrics
DOI 10.1016/j.jpeds.2005.07.016
Open this paper in CoChat — free account

Abstract

Objectives To determine whether average age at menarche declined in the United States during the past decade, and whether associations between menarcheal timing, weight status, and race/ethnicity changed.Study design Relative weight, race/ethnicity, and menarcheal status of girls (n = 1577) in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) III (1988-1994) were compared with those of girls (n = 1720) in NHANES 1999-2002. Probit analysis estimated average age at menarche overall and also by race/ethnicity. Logistic regression assessed associations of relative weight and race/ethnicity with menarcheal status.Results In the United States, average age at menarche declined from 12.53 years (95% confidence interval [CI] = 12.43 to 12.63 years) in 1988-1994 to 12.34 years (95% CI = 12.24 to 12.45 years) in 1999-2002. By race/ethnicity, average age at menarche estimates were as follows: non-Hispanic whites, 12.57 years (95% CI = 12.45 to 12.69 years) and 12.52 years (95% CI = 12.38 to 12.67 years); non-Hispanic blacks, 12.09 years (95% CI = 11.82 to 12.36 years) and 12.06 years (95% CI = 11.81 to 12.32 years); and Mexican Americans, 12.24 years (95% CI = 11.88 to 12.59 years) and 12.09 years (95% CI = 11.81 to 12.37 years). Higher relative weight was consistently associated with increased likelihood of having reached menarche.Conclusions Average age at menarche in the United States declined by 2.3 months between 1988-1994 and 1999-2002; by race/ethnicity, declines were considerably smaller. Changes in the population distribution of race/ethnicity and relative weight should be considered when interpreting trends in age at menarche.

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1016/j.jpeds.2005.07.016

Cites

37 of 37 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Recomputing p-values needs the paper’s full text.

Claims the paper makes

This paper’s full text isn’t openly available, so its claims and self-check weren’t run. The registry and citation checks still apply.

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • Given declining age of puberty and menarche and decreasing fertility rates in many parts of the world, the number of years during which a girl or woman experiences monthly menstrual bleeding has expanded along with the number of episodes.

    “Given the declining age of puberty (and menarche) and decreasing fertility rates in many parts of the world,8–10 the number of years during which a girl or woman will experience monthly menstrual bleeding has expanded along with the number of episodes.”

    From Beyond menstrual hygiene: addressing vaginal bleeding throughout the life course in low and middle-income countries (2017) · cites this paper as [8]

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Related

Authors
Anderson, S. E., & Must, A.
Affiliations
Tufts University (US)
Corresponding author
Anderson, Sarah E.
ORCID
Venue
The Journal of Pediatrics
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Published
2005-12
Volume
147
Issue
6
Pages
753-760
ISSN
0022-3476 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.1016/j.jpeds.2005.07.016
OpenAlex
W2035103139
Cited by
249
References
37
Citations by year
2026: 2 · 2025: 4 · 2024: 7 · 2023: 9 · 2022: 6 · 2021: 8 · 2020: 14 · 2019: 12 · 2018: 9 · 2017: 14 · 2016: 22 · 2015: 16 · 2014: 21 · 2013: 16 · 2012: 12
FWCI
14.57
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Licence
www.elsevier.com/tdm/userlicense/1.0/ (tdm)
Locations
  • The Journal of Pediatrics (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
Funders
National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (T32DK062032, T32 DK62032-11, P30DK046200)
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Reproductive Medicine › Hypothalamic control of reproductive hormones
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Obesity, Physical Activity, Diet
  • Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health
Keywords
age at menarche, secular trends, adolescent girls, relative weight, body mass index, racial and ethnic differences, puberty onset, NHANES III, United States
MeSH terms
Adolescent, Black or African American, Child, Female, Humans, Menarche, United States, Body Mass Index, Logistic Models, Mexican Americans, Age Distribution, White People

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review