Impact of Habitual Activities on Age of Menarche among Bengali Adolescent School Girls

Background: Menarche, the first menstrual bleeding is the signal of initiation of reproductive age of girls. There is a secular decline in the average age at menarche. Age at menarche has significant impact on health in adulthood.

Objectives: The present study was an attempt to assess the mean age at menarche and to determine impact of habitual activities on age at onset of menarche.

Methods: A cross sectional questionnaire based study was conducted among school girls having age limit 10-14 years who experienced menarche not more than previous three months. Subjects were divided into two group- experimental and control. Experimental group consisted of subjects those attained menarche below 11.5 years. Subjects of control group attained menarche above 11.5 years. Quantitative data were presented as percentage and/or mean + standard deviation. t-test was done to determine significant of difference between physical characteristics of females early age at menarche and reference age at menarche. Chi square test and logistic regression analysis were done for analysis of our results.

Results: 23% of study population acquired menarche at age below 11.5 years. Anthropometric parameters differed significantly between experimental and reference group. Significant association was observed between age at menarche with habitual activities. Logistic regression analysis suggested that habitual activities might be considered as determinants of early menarche.

Conclusion: Risk of early menarche increases with increasing duration of screen time and decreasing duration of daily physical activities like walking, outdoor playing and bicycle riding. Adolescent girls should encourage for physical activities and minimize including screen time.