Is there a secular trend in the menarcheal age of Indian girls?

the different parts of the country, and be influenced by many factors. Maya Bhalla and Srivatsava (6) found a declining trend in the menarcheal age of Kanpur girls. Amrita Bagga and Kulkarni (7) found a mean menarcheal age of 12.6 years in 366 Maharashtrian girls from Poona. They compared this with previous data from Maharashtrian girls and found a lowering of menarcheal age from 1960 onwards, the decline being about six months per decade. Singh et a l (8 ) found a stat ist ica l ly significant negative correlation of menarcheal age with year of birth in (i) 40 subjects born between 1939 and 1947, (ii) 320 medical students born between 1948 and 1952 and (iii) 110 school girls 11–16 years of age born between 1954 and 1960, suggestive of the existence of a secular trend, but such a trend was not evident when the data in school girls were reexamined ignoring the recalled menarcheal age (9) . However, subsequently, Singh and Usha Rao (10) (Article in Kilpauk Medical College Magazine 1980–81) obtained data in over a thousand Arts college girls and in medical students and hospital nurses (unpublished data). These data provided to us by Singh (personal communication) are shown in the table along with the results obtained by us in 500 girls presently studying in medical, engineering and Arts colleges of Madras city. The results indicate a declining trend of approximately five to six months per decade Several studies have shown that there is a declining trend in the menarcheal age of girls in western countries, generally attr ibuted to an improvement in the socioeconomic status. Wyshak and Frisch (1), while reviewing menarcheal age in Europe from 1795 to 1981, cover ing 220,037 individuals, found a 2-3 month decline per decade and a similar trend (referred to as a secular trend), in the United States between 1887 and 1947. Tanner (2) found a decline of about four months per decade in girls in US, Europe and Bri ta in . But such a downward trend cannot go on indefinitely and appears to have stopped in US, Britain, yet seems to continue in Sweden and parts of western Europe as reported by Roberts and Dann (3).