Resumo

VALDES GOMEZ, Wendy; ESPINOSA REYES, Tania  e  ALVAREZ DE LA CAMPA, Graciel Leyva. Menarche and associated factors. Rev Cubana Endocrinol [online]. 2013, vol.24, n.1, pp. 35-46. ISSN 1561-2953.

Introduction: menarche is the most common sexual maturity indicator, influenced by genetic and environmental factors and associated to the risk of developing diseases such as obesity, breast cancer, cardiovascular diseases and others. Objectives: to characterize demographically the adolescents under study; to evaluate them from the nutritional viewpoint by using the body mass index and the waist circumference, as well as to identify the association among menarche, race, low birthweight, overweight, abdominal obesity and presence of acanthosis nigricans. Methods: a cross-sectional, observational and descriptive study was conducted in "Jose Maria Heredia" junior high school from June 2010 to January 2011. The population was made up of 85 adolescents, who were asked about menarche, were anthropometrically measured and searched for acanthosis nigricans. Results: the average age of female adolescents was 12.05 years. Menarche was experienced by 63.5% of them and the average age of onset was 11.00±0.801 years. In this group, 17.6 % presented with overweight, 34.1 % with abdominal adiposity and 12.9 % had acanthosis nigricans, all of these factors statistically associated with the onset of menarche. Conclusions: most of the female adolescents experienced menarche at early ages; they were Caucasians and showed a high risk of developing overweight, abdominal obesity and clinical signs of insulin-resistance. The onset of menarche was not affected by low birthweight.

Palavras-chave : adolescents; adolescent health; menarche.

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