Correlation of age at menarche and height in Iranian student girls living in Gorgan--northeast of Iran.

OBJECTIVE To see the association of age at menarche with adult height in girls living in Gorgan--North of Iran. METHODS This study included 100 female university students (aged 18-21 years) born between 1985-1988 and 200 intermediate school students (aged 12-15 years) born between 1992-1994. Age at menarche and its association with height were studied. Data was analyzed by SPSS v11.5 software. Pearson correlation was used to determine the relation between menarcheal age and height. RESULTS There was a significant difference in the age of menarche between intermediate school students (12.20 +/- 1.45 years) and university students (13.54 +/- 1.30 years). This decreased by 68.54 days per 1-year. The significant positive association was between age at menarche and height. Height of students with menarche at an earlier age was less (P < 0.05). There was no significant difference in menarche age in the different socioeconomic classes. CONCLUSION Girls living in Gorgan--North of Iran acquire menarche at an early age. Students with earlier menarche reach a shorter adult height.