A study to determine age at menarche and its relationship with nutritional and socio-demographic status in selected government schools Belagavi, Karnataka: A cross-sectional study

Abstract

Menarche is the occurrence of first menstrual blood flow or menses in a female adolescent. Nutritional status and socio-demographic status plays an important role in the attainment of menarche. Girls with good nutritional status will get menarche in proper age compared to malnutrition girls and overweight girls. Both excess nutritional intake and insufficient nutritional intake will greatly affect the age at menarche.To determine the age at menarche and to find the nutritional profile of adolescent school girls from selected government schools, Belagavi. It is to find an association between age at menarche and nutritional profile, and socio-demographic factors. Cross sectional study done in 116 adolescent girls of age group between 11-16 years in selected government schools in Belagavi. 15 schools were selected by simple random sampling from each school 8 girls were selected using systematic random sampling. Data entry was done using the Microsoft office tools and analysis was done using IBM SPSS 21. The average age at menarche was 12.4±1.0 years. The majority of the participants' BMI was normal, i.e., 56 (48.28%), and 53 (45.69%) participants were underweighted. 99 (85.3%) of the participants are from an upper-middle-class family. The present study concluded that the mean age at menarche was 12.4±1.0 years. There was no significant association between menarcheal age and sociodemographic status or anthropometric measurements, but there was an association between menarcheal age and body aches and nutritional status. Good nutritional status declines the age at menarche.