Age at menarche and diet among adolescents in slums of Nashik, India
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Sushama Khopkar
Abstract
Background and aim: The role of dietary patterns in determining age at menarche is insufficiently understood in low-income countries. The relationship between dietary patterns, particularly the consumption of oil, and age at menarche in a slum-dwelling adolescent population in India is examined.
Methods: Data were derived from a cross-sectional baseline survey and anthropometric measurements among 10- to 19-year-old adolescents (n=545, female respondents 272, of whom 160 were post-menarcheal) and a household survey in two slums in the city of Nashik, Western India. By using mixed effects linear regression models, the association between age at menarche and household-wise use of sources of animal protein and oil and fat is examined.
Results: Age at menarche (mean 13.7 years) in the slums studied was relatively high according to Indian standards. Age at menarche and the consumption of dairy products, meat, fish and eggs were not associated. The household per capita consumption of vegetable oil had an inverse association with a girl’s age at menarche, and there was an indication of a positive association between use of ghee (clarified butter) and age at menarche. These associations did not disappear when controlling for anthropometric status and socio-economic characteristics.
Conclusion: Intake of fats and foods that are important sources of protein among underprivileged households in India is low and reflected in the relatively late age at menarche. The potential differences in the association between various types of fatty acids, energy intake and age at menarche in conditions of undernutrition requires further prospective study.
Acknowledgments
This study was made possible by Khopkar’s scholarship from the International Postgraduate Program in Epidemiology and Public Health (IPPE) at the School of Health Sciences, University of Tampere, Finland, and by Kulathinal’s and Säävälä’s scholarship from Kone Foundation. We thank the funding agencies for their support.
Potential conflicts of interest, real or perceived: None.
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©2015 by De Gruyter
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Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- Editorial
- Traumatic brain injury: some good news
- Mini Review
- Premenstrual disorder and the adolescent: clinical case report, literature review, and diagnostic and therapeutic challenges
- Original articles
- The relationship between physical fitness and obesity among a sample of adolescents in Cyprus
- Exposing young people to cooking and new foods: findings from a feasibility study in an alternative education setting
- Prolonged rooming-in in infancy is associated with generalized anxiety disorder in the adolescent period
- Prevalence of bullying in secondary schools in Port Harcourt
- Prevalence and determinants of smoking initiation among school students in Bosnia and Herzegovina
- Effects of lifetime tobacco, alcohol and drug use on psychological and behavioral problems among 10th grade students in Istanbul
- Internal resilience, peer victimization, and suicidal ideation among adolescents
- Predictors of violence and depression: the case of adolescents in Turkey
- Barriers to health education in adolescents: health care providers’ perspectives compared to high school adolescents
- Eating disorders in adolescents: how does the DSM-5 change the diagnosis?
- Perceptions of family styles by adolescents with eating disorders and their parents
- Age at menarche and diet among adolescents in slums of Nashik, India
- Case Reports
- Charging of the penis: an unusual method for sexual gratification
- An adolescent with asthma presenting with worsening cough
- Urethral foreign body in an adolescent boy: report of two rare cases and review of literature
- Short Communication
- HIV testing among non-incarcerated substance-abusing juvenile offenders
- Letter to the Editor
- Is the Internet the only factor of negative health outcomes amongst college students?
