THE RELATIONSHIP OF ANTHROPOMETRIC MEASUREMENTS AND HAEMOGLOBIN GENOTYPE WITH AGE AT MENARCHE AMONG SCHOOL GIRLS AT ILORIN

Abstract

Menarche, a relatively late event during puberty, is an important
milestone that signals the commencement of the reproductive life of the
growing child. It has far-reaching physiological, physical, sociologic and
clinical effects in life. The events leading to menarche are a complex
interaction of neuronal, hormonal and physical changes in the body.
The study was prospective and cross-sectional in design. It was
carried out among selected students at Ilorin and it was aimed at
determining the relationship of age at menarche with socio-demographic
factors, anthropometric measurements and haemoglobin genotypes.
The mean menarcheal age was 13.21 ± 1.29years; there was an
observed secular trend of 2.4 months/decade towards an earlier age at
menarche. The monogamous family type (p=0.0360), first order of birth
within the family (p=0.0094), higher maternal educational level
(p=0.0001) and respondents with high socio-economic class (p=0.0000)
along with maternal mean menarcheal age (p=0.005) and the
haemoglobin genotypes (p=0.0000) of respondents were statistically
significant with the mean age at menarche while other indices such as
tribe, religion, type of housing and anthropometric measurements were
not.
The socioeconomic class was however, the only index that was
significant on multivariate analysis.
It is concluded from this study that girls are attaining reproductive
capacity at a younger age and it is therefore recommended that family life
education be introduced into the universal basic education school
curricula to equip young girls with capacity to make responsible
reproductive choices later in life.

THE RELATIONSHIP OF ANTHROPOMETRIC MEASUREMENTS AND HAEMOGLOBIN GENOTYPE WITH AGE AT MENARCHE AMONG SCHOOL GIRLS AT ILORIN