Evidence map›Paper›PMID 39881238›Full record

ArticleBMC women's health2025

How does BMI correlate with menarche onset? Evidence from the Italian HBSC cross-sectional study.

Domitilla Marconi, Dario Lipari, Andrea Pammolli, Paola Dalmasso, Paola Nardone, Alessio Vieno, Rita Simi, Giacomo Lazzeri

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in BMC women's health, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
2citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

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.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

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Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

2 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Review
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4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

8 authors.

Domitilla MarconiPost Graduate School of Public Health, University of Siena, Siena, 53100, Italy. d.marconi2@student.unisi.it.
Dario LipariPost Graduate School of Public Health, University of Siena, Siena, 53100, Italy.
Andrea PammolliResearch, Education, Prevention and Health Promotion (CREPS), University of Siena, Siena, 53100, Italy.
Paola DalmassoDepartment of Public Health and Paediatrics, University of Torino, Torino, 10126, Italy.
Paola NardoneNational Centre for Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Istituto Superiore di Sanità (National Institute of Health), Rome, 00161, Italy.
Alessio VienoDepartment of Developmental and Social Psychology, University of Padova, Padova, 35131, Italy.
Rita SimiResearch, Education, Prevention and Health Promotion (CREPS), University of Siena, Siena, 53100, Italy.
Giacomo LazzeriPost Graduate School of Public Health, University of Siena, Siena, 53100, Italy.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundMenarche is an important period in a female's life; its time of onset may depend on various factors and could correlate with the development of diseases in adulthood. Our study aims to investigate the relationship between body mass index and age at onset of menarche;

methodsWe used a unique standardized national dataset on adolescent girls participating in the Italian Health Behaviour in School-aged Children Study. Two independent nationally representative survey datasets: one on 15-year-olds (n = 6505, year 2017/2018) and one on 11-year-olds (n = 6548, year 2013/2014) were analysed. The survey instrument was the self-report questionnaire. Median age at menarche and 95% confidence intervals were estimated through Kaplan-Meier analysis. Hierarchical models assessed the relationship between BMI and age at menarche;

resultsRegion-level median age at menarche ranged between 12 years/5 months and 13 years/4 months. Region-level prevalence of overweight among 15-year-old girls ranged between 6% and 24%. Age at menarche was inversely associated with individual BMI (unstandardized regression coefficient beta=-0.81; 95% CI, -0.92 to -0.70). Individual-level and class-level measures of BMI accounted for 215.2% of the region-level variance in age at menarche;

conclusionsThe results show that girls who were overweight during childhood went through early puberty. Further investigation needs to assess a possible cause-effect relationship.

Indexed as

Body Mass IndexMenarcheAdolescentAge FactorsAge of OnsetChildCross-Sectional StudiesFemaleHealth SurveysHumansItalyOverweightPrevalenceSurveys and QuestionnairesBMIEarly pubertyMenarcheObesityOverweightPuberty

Identifiers

PMID39881238
PMCPMC11780926

What OpenQuestion holds

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LicenceCC BY-NC-ND
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Registered trials

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.