ArticleBMJ global health2020
Timing and determinants of age at menarche in low-income and middle-income countries.
Article in BMJ global health, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 40 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
40 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 75 citations in OpenAlex.
- Assessment of the differences in Mean Age at Menarche (MAM) among adolescent girls in rural and urban Nigeria: a systematic review.BMC public health · 2024Pooled it
- The J shaped association of age at menarche and cardiovascular events: systematic review and meta-analysis.Scientific reports · 2024Pooled it
- Spatiotemporal Patterns of Age at Menarche or Spermarche in Chinese Children and Adolescents and Socioeconomic and Environmental Determinants: Findings from a Series of Nation-Wide Surveys, 1995 to 2019.Environment & health (Washington, D.C.) · 2026Article
- Adolescent Hormonal Contraceptive Use in the Context of Brain Development and Depression Risk: A Review and Considerations for Future Research.Biological psychiatry global open science · 2026Review
- Secular trends and ethnic disparities in age at menarche among ethnic minority girls in China: a 35-year nationwide repeated cross-sectional study from 1985 to 2019.Journal of global health · 2026Article
- Age at menarche and adverse pregnancy and perinatal outcomes: triangulating evidence from multivariable and Mendelian randomization analyses.International journal of epidemiology · 2026Article
- Age at menarche association with metabolic, reproductive, and sociodemographic factors: a population-based cross-sectional analysis using an outcome-wide framework in Geneva, Switzerland.European journal of public health · 2026Article
- Secular trends in menarche age among Iranian girls: Probit analysis on cross-sectional data of Persian (Shahedieh) cohort.International journal of reproductive biomedicine · 2026Article
- Genetic insights into the relationship between age at menarche and mental health-related phenotypes.European psychiatry : the journal of the Association of European Psychiatrists · 2026Article
- Age at Menarche Among Mizo Women in Aizawl, Mizoram: A Secular Trend Across Five Birth-Decade Cohorts (1960-2007).Cureus · 2026Article
- Mixed evidence for stress effects on cortisol-testosterone coupling in Syrian refugee and Jordanian non-refugee adolescents.Psychoneuroendocrinology · 2026Article
- Article
- Associations of lifetime cumulative estrogen exposure with lifecourse social exposures, cognitive decline, and dementia risk among postmenopausal White, Black, and Latina women.The journals of gerontology. Series B, Psychological sciences and social sciences · 2026Article
- Adiposity and reproductive characteristics across the lifespan: a multi-ethnic population-based study in Northwest China.Reproductive health · 2026Article
- Age at menarche and blood pressure in late adolescence: the role of body adiposity in a Brazilian birth cohort.Revista brasileira de epidemiologia = Brazilian journal of epidemiology · 2026Article
- Reproductive health characteristics among women living in severe poverty in urban Haiti.Reproductive health · 2025Observational
- Secular trends in age at menarche among Han Chinese females in Shanghai: a large-scale community-based study.BMC women's health · 2025Article
- Plastic Additives in Single-Use and Reusable Menstrual Products: Potential Implications for Human Health and the Environment.Environmental science & technology · 2025Article
- Reproductive health history and later life cognition in African Caribbean women.Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association · 2025Article
- Estimated timing of the first menstrual period and dietary and nutritional correlates of menarche among urban school-going adolescents in four sub-Saharan African sites.Maternal & child nutrition · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
2 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
introductionUnderstanding the timing and determinants of age at menarche is key to determining potential linkages between onset of puberty and health outcomes from a life-course perspective. Yet, we have little information in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs) mainly due to lack of data. The aim of this study was to analyse trends in the timing and the determinants of menarche in LMICs.
methodsUsing 16 World Fertility Survey and 28 Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) from 27 countries, we analysed cohort trends and used fixed-effects models for DHS surveys to investigate sociodemographic and regional effects in the timing of age at menarche.
resultsTrends of the mean age at menarche across time within and between countries show a declining or stalling path. Results of the determinant modelling show the relationship with wealth changes over time although not consistently across countries. We see a shift from poorer women having earlier menarche in earlier surveys to richer women having earlier menarche in later surveys in Indonesia, the Philippines and Yemen, while in Egypt, the reverse pattern is evident.
conclusionsThere is a considerable gap in both literature and data on menarche. We see a trend which is declining rapidly (from 14.66 to 12.86 years for the 1932 and 2002 cohorts, respectively), possibly at a faster pace than high-income countries and with a strong link to socioeconomic status. This study calls for menarche questions to be included in more nationally representative surveys and greater use of existing data because of its impact on life-course health in fast-ageing settings. Further studies will need to investigate further the use of the age at menarche as an indicator of global health.
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