ESPE Abstracts

Background: Early age at menarche was associated with obesity, insulin resistance, metabolic syndrome, cardiovascular disease (CVD), and mortality in adulthood. Besides, a mother's age at menarche has been suggested to be a likely contributor to a daughter's early menarche. Therefore, this study aimed to determine whether a mother's earlier age at menarche is a risk factor for a daughter's early menarche, obesity, and short stature in young Korean females.

Methods: We analyzed 761 pairs of mothers and daughters from 16-30 years-of-age using age at menarche and anthropometric data from the 6th Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (2013–2015).

Results: Mothers with earlier menarche showed a higher prevalence of early menarche in their daughters (earlier, 35.6%; reference, 25.8%; later, 13.3%; P< 0.05) and percentage of short stature (< 152 cm) of their daughters (11.3% vs. 4.2% vs. 2.6%; P< 0.05). However, there were no differences in the prevalence of a daughter’s obesity, according to a mother’s menarche age. The odds ratio (OR) for early menarche (< 12 years) for a daughter of a mother with earlier menarche compared with the reference was 1.56 (95% CI, [0.99-2.46]) after adjusting confounders. The OR for short stature for a daughter of a mother with early menarche was 3.13 (95% CI, [1.44-6.81]) after further adjusting for age, the short stature of the mother, and age at menarche of the daughter.

Conclusion: In conclusion, earlier age at menarche of a mother increases the risk of early menarche and short stature of a daughter in young Korean females.