Age at menarche and risk of major cardiovascular diseases: Evidence of birth cohort effects from a prospective study of 300,000 Chinese women.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Previous studies of mostly Western women have reported inconsistent findings on the association between age at menarche and risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD). Little is known about the association in China where there has been a large intergenerational decrease in women's mean age at menarche.

Methods

The China Kadoorie Biobank recruited 302,632 women aged 30-79 (mean 50.5)years in 2004-8 from 10 diverse regional sites across China. During 7years follow-up, 14,111 incident cases of stroke, 14,093 of coronary heart disease (CHD), and 3200 CVD deaths were reported among 281,491 women who had no prior history of CVD at baseline. Cox regression yielded adjusted hazard ratios (HRs) relating age at menarche to CVD risks.

Results

The mean (SD) age of menarche w

SUBMITTER: Yang L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5176087 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature