Determining the age at menarche in adolescent girls and evaluation of secular change

Menarche, which is the most important indicator of the transition of adolescent girls to sexual maturity; It includes many living factors such as genetic factors, socioeconomic status, nutritional ventilation, climate, temperature, temperature. All of these factors are those that determine when menarche will occur, either by influencing them or by psychological effects. The aim of our study is to study the age of menarche with a large sample in Kırşehir, which is one of the cities of the Central Anatolia Region, where no data on the age of menarche has been found before, to calculate the average age of menarche in the region and to determine the factors affecting the age of menarche. Another aim of our study is to observe the state of the menarche relationship between mothers and their daughters and to detect the secular change. In addition, to examine the relationship between anthropometric values and menarche. In our study with 1197 individuals from a total of 6 schools, 2 primary schools, 2 secondary schools and 2 high schools located in the center of Kırşehir, the menarche status of these students was calculated separately by the current status determination method (status-quo) and reminder (recall) method. In addition, the menarche status of the mothers and sisters was examined by the recall method. Anthropometric measurements of all individuals in our sample, height and weight measurements were taken as predicted by the International Biological Program (IBP), and Body Mass Index (BMI) was calculated with these measurements. The relationship between anthropometric variables and menarche was examined. Apart from anthropometric measurements, the existence of the effects of variables such as the place of residence of the sample, the number of siblings, the educational status of the parents, and the occupational status of the parents on the age of menarche, and if there is an effect, the form of this effect was examined. To the collected data; Chi-square, independent sample t-test, one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), and Cox Regression analyzes were applied to reveal the relationship between age at menarche and age at menarche. The mean age of the individuals in our sample was 13.59 years, and the mean age of menarche was calculated as 12.24 years for 671 people who had menarche. However, the mean age of the mothers of these girls was 39.74 years and the mean age at menarche was 12.91 years. As a result of the statistical analyzes, a statistically positive relationship was found between the individuals in our sample and their mothers' age at menarche. In addition, the mean age of the sisters was 17.49 years, and the age of menarche was 12.69 years. As a result of the analyzes made, it was determined that the age of menarche was related to height, maternal age of menarche and season. Another result is that postmenarche girls have higher values than premenarche girls in all anthropometric variables. The increase in the number of siblings, weekly consumption of fast food and junk food increases the incidence of menarche. The highest rate of menarche is seen in summer and the least in autumn. Apart from these results, the secular change in the age of menarche and the characteristics of this change were determined for the ten-year periods from the 1960s to those born in the 1990s, together with the maternal menarche ages. It was determined that the age of menarche decreased by about 0.18 years in 10-year periods. Despite the many menarche studies carried out in the cities of Ankara, Kayseri, Sivas and Konya, which are among the cities of Central Anatolia, no study was conducted in Kırşehir until the period when we carried out our study. At this point, we think that we have closed an important gap in the literature. In addition, we believe that the results of our study will be a guide for other growth and development studies.