Menarcheal age and nutritional status of Sri Lankan girls

Abstract

The influence of several envitonmental factors on ths lnean age at rnenarche ha.re been studied in Sri Lanka. Differences betwe$n urban and rural groups u'ere reporied by Wilson and Sutherland (1) and mot'e receRtly Kodagoda and Rajapaksa (2). Findin_ss lrom the studies on the influence of socio-economic level have not been consistent. Chinnatharnby (3) reported a iorvering of the mean age with increase in $ocio-economic conditions vrhile .fayasekara and Gunawardena (4) could find no significant influence of the father's occupation or family sizs. The differences in the mean age at menarche between Kandy and Fiurvara Eliya school girls rvere attributed by us mainiy to the differences in the socio-economic status (5). fn a more recent study by Godaw'atta and Wikramanayake (6) the differences observed betrveen Colombo amd Kadawata were aitributed to differences in the socio-econornic status. These rvorkels also noted that the girls wlro had reached menarche are significantly taller, heavier and had higher body rnass indexes than those who had not. Mid-arm circumference and the skinfold thickness too were fbund to be higher in those who had reached menarche. No other atternpts have been rnade to study the influence of nutritional status on the age at inenarche. The rnost rvidely accepted classification fol nutritional status is the Wateriow Classification (7) which is derived from v;eight for height and height for age. This classification distinguishes rlormal cirildren ti'orn thoss acutely undernourished, chronically undernonrished and those lvith acute and chrorric undernutrition. This present study is an attempt to relate the existing nutritional status of school girls to the mean age at menarche