ArticleFrontiers in endocrinology2023
COVID-19 pandemic phases and female precocious puberty: The experience of the past 4 years (2019 through 2022) in an Italian tertiary center.
Article in Frontiers in endocrinology, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 11 papers.
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Who cites it
11 citing papers in PubMed.
- Idiopathic Central Precocious Puberty in Boys: Results from a National Portuguese Cohort.Hormone research in paediatrics · 2026Article
- Central precocious puberty in Türkiye, 2018-2024: national incidence, prevalence, and changes across the COVID-19 period.Frontiers in endocrinology · 2026Article
- Parallel Increase in Childhood Anorexia Nervosa and Early Puberty During the COVID-19 Pandemic.The International journal of eating disorders · 2026Article
- The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on School-Based Scoliosis Screening Program in South Korea.Neurospine · 2025Article
- Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the incidence of central precocious puberty: A PRISMA-ScR-COMPLIANT scoping review.Archives of endocrinology and metabolism · 2025Article
- Insights into pubertal development: a narrative review on the role of epigenetics.Journal of endocrinological investigation · 2025Review
- Back to normal? A retrospective study on stimulation test and endocrinological diagnosis before, during and after COVID-19 pandemics.Frontiers in endocrinology · 2025Article
- Pubertal Timing Across Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Subgroups.JAMA network open · 2024Article
- Incidence of central precocious puberty declines to pre-pandemic levels post COVID-19 pandemic increase: single-center retrospective review in the United States.Frontiers in pediatrics · 2024Article
- Endocrinological Involvement in Children and Adolescents Affected by COVID-19: A Narrative Review.Journal of clinical medicine · 2023Review
- Prevalence and factors associated with medication adherence in children with central precocious puberty: a cross-sectional study.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2023Article
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7 authors.
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Abstract
Objective: Since the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic, several centers of pediatric endocrinology worldwide have observed a significant increase in the number of girls presenting with precocious or early puberty. We aimed to compare the incidence rates of female precocious puberty before and during the different phases of COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: We have retrospectively analyzed all the consultations recorded in the outpatient clinic database of the Endocrinology Unit of Bambino Gesù Children's Hospital, Rome, Italy, from the lockdown start in March 2020 up to September 2020, in comparison with the consultations recorded in the same months of 2019, 2021 and 2022. Age, height, weight, body mass index, Tanner's pubertal stage and bone age at presentation, birth weight, ethnicity, family history of central precocious puberty (CPP), maternal age at menarche, history of adoption were retrieved from clinical records. Serum levels of follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH), luteinizing hormone (LH) both at baseline and after gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) stimulation, and basal estradiol levels were collected. Results: In 2019, 78 girls with suspected precocious puberty were referred for endocrinological consultation, compared to 202 girls in 2020, 158 girls in 2021 and 112 girls in 2022. A significant increase in the proportion of girls diagnosed with rapidly progressive CPP was observed in 2020, compared to 2019 (86/202 Conclusions: Our research suggests that drastic lifestyle changes, such as those imposed by COVID-19 lockdown, and the consequent stress may affect the regulation of pubertal timing. The remarkable increase in CPP cases observed during the 2020 first pandemic wave seems to be reduced in 2021 and 2022, concurrently with the progressive resumption of daily activities. These data seem to support the hypothesis of a direct relationship between profound life-style changes related to the pandemic and the rise in precocious puberty cases.
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