Growth status and menarcheal age among adolescent school girls in Wannune, Benue State, Nigeria

BMC Pediatrics

Research Article

Daniel T Goon¹  Jonathan Uever²  Sarah Wuam³  Olutoyin M Toriola⁴  Abel L Toriola⁵ 

[1] Centre for Biokinetics, Recreation and Sport Science, University of Venda, Thohoyandou, South Africa;Department of Human Kinetics and Health Education, Benue State University, Makurdi, Nigeria;Department of Physical and Health Education, College of Education, Katsina-Ala, Nigeria;Department of Primary Education (Physical Education Unit), University of Swaziland, Kwaluseni, Swaziland;Department of Sports, Rehabilitation and Dental Sciences, Tshwane University of Technology, Pretoria, South Africa;

关键词: Body Mass Index;    Amenorrhea;    Local Government Area;    School Girl;    High BMIs;   

DOI  :  10.1186/1471-2431-10-60

 received in 2010-01-17, accepted in 2010-08-19,  发布年份 2010

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundMenarcheal age is a sensitive indicator of environmental conditions during childhood. The aim of study is to determine the age at menarche and growth status in adolescents in a rural area of Tarka, Wannune, Nigeria.MethodsData on 722 female students (aged 12-18 years) were collected in February 2009. Height and weight were measured. Body mass index (BMI; kg m-2) was used as an index of relative weight.ResultsMean and median menarcheal age calculated by probit analysis were 13.02 (SD 3.0) (95% CI: 13.02-13.07), and age 13.00 (SD 2.8) (95% CI: 12.98-13.04), respectively. Girls who reach menarche are significantly heavier and taller with higher BMIs than those of their pre-menarcheal peers.ConclusionThe age of menarche is probably still declining in Nigeria. Although BMI is an important factor in the onset of menstruation, some other unmeasured environmental variables may be implicated in this population.

【 授权许可】

Unknown   
© Goon et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2010. This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.