Study: overweight more common among early-maturing girls, especially ...( than eight pounds than those who mature...)

"Also, significantly higher proportions of African-American and Hispanic girls had their first period before age 11, and a significantly higher proportion of Asian-American girls had their first period after their 14th birthday," Adair said. "Adolescent girls who had their first period before their 11th birthday were two times more likely to be overweight than girls who begin menstruating later."

Early-maturing black girls were 2.57 times more likely to be overweight than white girls who matured neither early nor late, she said.

"Our study could not address the issue of whether having more body fat causes girls to mature earlier, but it does document a strong relationship," Adair said.

"We're interested in this question because, besides diabetes, many health problems have been linked to being overweight, including atherosclerosis, heart attacks and strokes later in life," she said. "Also, we know that earlier-maturing girls tend to become sexually active earlier than other girls."

The UNC-based National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, also known as Add Health, is the largest study of U.S. adolescents ever conducted. Data from the larger study, led by Drs. J. Richard Udry, professor of maternal and child health, and Peter Bearman, now at Columbia University, came from detailed, confidential surveys of 17,666 teen-agers about their experiences, practices and attitudes.

The National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, the Carolina Population Center and numerous other agencies funded Add Health. A recent, widely reported study from Add Health data showed that teen pledges to remain virgins until marriage often succeeded in helping younger teens postpone sex. In 1997, UNC's Dr. Marcia Herman-Giddens published a widely cited paper in Pediatrics indicating that for unknown reasons, U.S. girls might reach puberty earlier than they did in the past.
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Contact: David Williamson
David_Williamson@unc.edu
919-962-8596
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
29-Mar-2001