Growth in Infancy and Childhood and Age at Menarche in Five Low- or Middle-Income Countries: Consortium of Health Orientated Research in Transitional Societies (COHORTS).

ABSTRACT:

Background

Earlier age at menarche is associated with behavioral and noncommunicable disease risks. The influence of birth weight (BW) (intrauterine) and postnatal growth on age at menarche is not well studied in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).

Objective

Therefore, we investigated these associations in 5 LMIC birth cohorts.

Methods

We analyzed data from Brazil, Guatemala, India, the Philippines, and South Africa (n = 3983). We derived stunting (< -2 SD scores) at 24 mo using the WHO child growth standards. We generated interaction terms with categorized BW and conditional weight (lighter < 0 or heavier ≥ 0), and height (shorter < 0 or taller ≥ 0) z-scores. We categorized early-, modal-, and late-onset menarche and used multilevel ordinal regression. We used

SUBMITTER: Nyati LH 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10517227 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature