The Relationship Between Menarche Age and Anthropometric Indexes of Girls in Sabzevar, Iran

Predicting the onset of menstruation (menarche age) and measuring height, weight and Body Mass Index (BMI) are among the major health information. Due to the importance of this issue, the present study was conducted to determine the anthropometric indexes and their relationship with menarche age in female students of Sabzevar, Iran in 2010. This cross sectional descriptive study was conducted on girls of 11-18 years of age; 130 students were selected by multi-stage probability sampling. The relevant data were collected by a questionnaire as well as measuring the height, weight and BMI. The obtained data were analyzed in SPSS11.5 using t-test, chi-square and ANOVA, where p<0.05 was considered to be significant. Mean menarche age was 12.5±1.4 years. Mean BMI in menstruated and non-menstruated girls were 21.3±4.2 and 18.43±3.6 kg/m respectively. Mean weight and height of the menstruated girls were 51.43±10.7 kg and 156.06±3.6 cm respectively, which are higher than respective figures of the non-menstruated participants (40.54±9.6 kg and 148.21±8.36 cm respectively). The correlation coefficient showed a significant relation between BMI and menarche age (p=0.02). The results indicated that the menarche age and BMI are significantly related and the higher the BMI the Lower the menarche age.