ArticleInternational journal of obesity (2005)2018
Age at menarche and adult body mass index: a Mendelian randomization study.
Article in International journal of obesity (2005), 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 53 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
53 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Global prevalence and incidence of precocious puberty: a systematic review and meta-analysis.BMC public health · 2025Pooled it
- Mendelian randomization study and meta-analysis exploring the causality of age at menarche and the risk of intracerebral hemorrhage and ischemic stroke.CNS neuroscience & therapeutics · 2023Pooled it
- Age at menarche and adverse pregnancy and perinatal outcomes: triangulating evidence from multivariable and Mendelian randomization analyses.International journal of epidemiology · 2026Article
- Associations between breastfeeding, childhood BMI and pubertal onset: findings from a prospective cohort study.The American journal of clinical nutrition · 2026Article
- Age at Menarche and Risk of Hypertensive Disorders of Pregnancy: A Retrospective Cohort Study.Clinics and practice · 2026Article
- Adiposity and reproductive characteristics across the lifespan: a multi-ethnic population-based study in Northwest China.Reproductive health · 2026Article
- Age at menarche and general and abdominal obesity in older Brazilian women: ELSI-Brazil.Revista de saude publica · 2026Article
- Age at Menarche and Its Association with Cardiovascular Disease in Women with Childhood-Onset Type 1 Diabetes (T1D).Diabetes, metabolic syndrome and obesity : targets and therapy · 2026Article
- Age at Menarche and Coronary Artery Disease Risk: Divergent Associations With Different Sources of Variation.The Journal of clinical endocrinology and metabolism · 2025Article
- Pubertal timing and tempo and body mass index trajectories: investigating the confounding role of childhood body mass index.American journal of epidemiology · 2025Article
- Identification of loci associated with women's reproductive traits and exploration of a shared genetic basis with obesity.Human genomics · 2025Article
- Socioeconomic Status and Age at Menarche in Türkiye.American journal of human biology : the official journal of the Human Biology Council · 2025Article
- Association of Age at Menarche with General and Abdominal Obesity in Young Women.Medicina (Kaunas, Lithuania) · 2024Article
- Evaluation and comparison of nine growth and development-based measures of pubertal timing.Communications medicine · 2024Article
- The association between reproductive history and abdominal adipose tissue among postmenopausal women: results from the Women's Health Initiative.Human reproduction (Oxford, England) · 2024Article
- Body Mass Index and Hypertension as Mediators of the Association Between Age at Menarche and Subclinical Atherosclerosis: A Sex-Specific Mendelian Randomization Analysis.Journal of the American Heart Association · 2024Article
- Maternal Age at Menarche Genes Determines Fetal Growth Restriction Risk.International journal of molecular sciences · 2024Article
- Health condition and socioeconomic status mediate the causal effect of reproductive traits on nonalcoholic fatty liver disease: evidence from Mendelian randomization study.Frontiers in endocrinology · 2024Article
- Establishing the relationships between adiposity and reproductive factors: a multivariable Mendelian randomization analysis.BMC medicine · 2023Article
- Maternal Age at Menarche Gene Polymorphisms Are Associated with Offspring Birth Weight.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundPubertal timing has psychological and physical sequelae. While observational studies have demonstrated an association between age at menarche and adult body mass index (BMI), confounding makes it difficult to infer causality.
methodsThe Mendelian randomization (MR) technique is not limited by traditional confounding and was used to investigate the presence of a causal effect of age at menarche on adult BMI. MR uses genetic variants as instruments under the assumption that they act on BMI only through age at menarche (no pleiotropy). Using a two-sample MR approach, heterogeneity between the MR estimates from individual instruments was used as a proxy for pleiotropy, with sensitivity analyses performed if detected. Genetic instruments and estimates of their association with age at menarche were obtained from a genome-wide association meta-analysis on 182,416 women. The genetic effects on adult BMI were estimated using data on 80,465 women from the UK Biobank. The presence of a causal effect of age at menarche on adult BMI was further investigated using data on 70,692 women from the GIANT Consortium.
resultsThere was evidence of pleiotropy among instruments. Using the UK Biobank data, after removing instruments associated with childhood BMI that were likely exerting pleiotropy, fixed-effect meta-analysis across instruments demonstrated that a 1 year increase in age at menarche reduces adult BMI by 0.38 kg/m
conclusionMR provides evidence to support the hypothesis that earlier age at menarche causes higher adult BMI. Complex hormonal and psychological factors may be responsible.
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Registered trials
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