Bio–Social Factors Affecting Age of  Attainment of Menarche–A Study From  Semi–Urban City of Karnataka

Dr. Gayathri Hemanth Aradhya

Volume : II, Issue : VIII, August - 2013

Bio–Social Factors Affecting Age of Attainment of Menarche–A Study From Semi–Urban City of Karnataka

Dr. Gayathri Hemanth Aradhya

Abstract :

Background: Adolescents form about 20 to 30% of our population. Menarche is viewed as an excellent excellent physiological marker of maturation in girls.The present study was undertaken to correlate between age of menarche and bio-social factors affecting it. Materials and Methods:This is a Cross- sectional study.This study was conducted among 500 adolescent girls in the age group of 10 to 17years, randomly selected from urban and rural schools of city of Davangere. Girls age was taken from school records, weight ,height was recorded,exact date of attainment of menarche was recorded,thorough examination was done to rule out any systemic illnesses,their socio-economic status was assessed with their parental help. RESULTS:60% of the girls of age group 14 and 15 years.12.9 years was the mean age of attainment of menarche. Of the 5 girls who had attained menarche at 10 years of age, majority of them belonged to social class I and II, on the contrary girl who attained late menarche that is at 16 years belonged to social class IV. In our study the relationship between social class and age at menarche was highly significant P<0.05(HS).Correlation between age of menarche and BMI was not stastistically significant in our study. CONCLUSION: Low socioeconomic status have an impact on age of attainment of menarche, BMI didn�t have much affect on age of attainment of menarche.