"Early Puberty In Girls Due to Being Overweight As A Toddler"

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/healthnews.php?newsid=64517
Pediatrics News

Early Puberty In Girls Due to Being Overweight As A Toddler
Article Date: 05 Mar 2007 - 4:00 PST


US scientists have shown that being overweight as a toddler increases the
chance that a girl will reach puberty early.

The study from the University of Michigan's Mott Children's Hospital is
published in the journal Pediatrics.

Dr Joyce Lee, the lead author, and colleagues used the data on 354 girls
from age 3 who were enrolled in the National Institute of Child Health and
Human Development (NICHD) Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development
(SECCYD).

SECCYD is a national programme run by the National Institutes of Health
(NIH) where qualified researchers are permitted access to datasets if they
fulfill the NICHD criteria.

The SECCYD data set offered the researchers the opportunity to look at
longitudinal data on the girls at age 3 and 4.5, and then at school grades
1, 4, 5 and 6.

They looked at height and weight at each measurement stage, and from grades
4 to 6 they also looked at pubertal stage measurements (these were based on
physical examination reports and reports completed by the girls' mothers).
They also took into account other factors such as race, the mother's
education and the mother's age when she started menstruating.

The girls' pubertal stage was assessed according to stage of breast
development and start of the menstrual cycle.

Breast development was measured using Tanner Stages, a way of assessing
physical development in children. For girls' breasts Tanner Stage 1 is
prepubertal and has no glandular tissue and Stage 2 is where the breast
buds are forming. There are five Tanner stages altogether, with fully
formed adult breasts at Stage 5.

Dr Lee and her team used statistical logistic regression to predict early
versus late puberty from Body Mass Index (BMI) which combines weight and
height.

Of the 354 girls, 168 of them (48 per cent) were classed as being "in
puberty" by the age of 9, with 6.5 per cent having started their menstrual
cycle by age 11.

The results showed that an earlier onset of puberty was positively and
consistently linked to rate of change of BMI between age 3 and grade 1, an
earlier age of the mother's own start of menstruation, and being non-white.

The researchers said that before this study, all we knew was that higher
BMI was linked to earlier onset of puberty but not which caused the other.
Now this study shows it is highly likely that high BMI causes early
puberty.

Other studies have shown that children are more obese than they were 30
years ago, and also that puberty in girls starts earlier than 30 years ago.
Dr Lee and colleagues said their study offers strong evidence that being
overweight in pre-puberty is what causes the early onset of puberty in
girls.

Early onset of puberty in girls is a serious health issue because it is
linked to increased mental problems, early abuse of alcohol, early sexual
encounters and teenage pregnancy. It is also linked to increased obesity as
a grown up and reproductive cancers, said the researchers.

"Weight Status in Young Girls and the Onset of Puberty."
Joyce M. Lee, Danielle Appugliese, Niko Kaciroti, Robert F. Corwyn, Robert
H. Bradley, and Julie C. Lumeng
Pediatrics Vol. 119 No. 3 March 2007, pp. E624-E630
doi:10.1542/peds.2006-2188

Click here for Abstract.

Click here for the US NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development
(SECCYD).

Written by: Catharine Paddock
Writer: Medical News Today


===


ABSTRACT

http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/cgi/content/abstract/119/3/E624

PEDIATRICS Vol. 119 No. 3 March 2007, pp. E624-E630
(doi:10.1542/peds.2006-2188)


Weight Status in Young Girls and the Onset of Puberty
Joyce M. Lee, MD, MPHa,b, Danielle Appugliese, MPHc, Niko Kaciroti, PhDd,
Robert F. Corwyn, PhDe, Robert H. Bradley, PhDe and Julie C. Lumeng, MDd,f

a Pediatric Endocrinology
b Child Health Evaluation and Research Unit
f Child Behavioral Health, Department of Pediatrics
d Center for Human Growth and Development, University of Michigan, Ann
Arbor, Michigan
c Data Coordinating Center, Boston University School of Public Health,
Boston, Massachusetts
e Center for Applied Studies in Education, University of Arkansas, Little
Rock, Arkansas

OBJECTIVE. We sought to examine the association between weight status in
early childhood and onset of puberty.

PATIENTS AND METHODS. The study included 354 girls from the National
Institute of Child Health and Human Development Study of Early Child Care
and Youth Development. Girls were followed longitudinally with height and
weight measurements at 36 and 54 months and grades 1, 4, 5, and 6 and with
assessment of pubertal stage by physical examination and maternal report in
grades 4 through 6. The main outcome was the presence of early puberty,
indexed as follows: (a) breast development at or more than Tanner stage 2
by physical examination at grade 4; (b) breast development at or more than
Tanner stage 3 by physical examination at grade 5; (c) maternal report of
breast development at or more than Tanner stage 3 at grade 5; and (d)
maternal report of menarche having already occurred (yes versus no) at
grade 6. Multiple logistic regression models predicting early versus late
puberty were constructed by using the covariate BMI z score at 36 months,
rate of change of BMI and accelerated BMI between 36 months and grade 1,
race, maternal education, and maternal age of menarche.

RESULTS. BMI z score at 36 months, rate of change of BMI between 36 months
and grade 1, an earlier age of maternal menarche, and nonwhite race were
each consistently and positively associated with an earlier onset of
puberty across the various measures of puberty.

CONCLUSIONS. Higher BMI z score in girls as young as 36 months of age and
higher rate of change of BMI between 36 months old and grade 1, a period
well before the onset of puberty, are associated with earlier puberty,
which suggests that increasing rates of obesity in the United States may
result in an earlier average age of onset of puberty for US girls.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Key Words: puberty • obesity • child • body weight • sexual maturation


Abbreviations: ITN—income-to-needs



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Accepted Sep 15, 2006.
.

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