Onset of menstruation is important landmark in female development. Menarche is an identifiable event in the gradual development.
It is generally accepted that age at menarche is affected by nutrition, body composition and socioeconomic factors including socioeconomic status, family size, public and individual health.
The age at menarche had been getting earlier during the past century. This secular trend has been regarded as a positive indicator of a population's status of health. But recent studies have indicated an halted or upward trend in age of menarche,
perhaps a reponse to some environmental deterioration.
In this study, we examined the age at menarche, the secular trend of age at menarche and the comparison with other countries. We also investigated a various factors that affect the time of menarche.
The subjects survey were 11,424 adolescent girls from 6 large cities in Korea who asked a carefully planned questionnaires between September 1994 and August 1995.
In the girls survey, the age at menarche ranged from 9 to 20 years with a mean 13.2 years. About 60% had menarche before the age of 14 years, and over 97% of them before the age of 16 years.
In middle schoolgirls, the mean age at menarche was 12.96 years, and a great number of them experienced menarche between the 6th grade of the elementary school and 2nd grade of the middle school. But 3.7% of them had not yet menstruated. In high
schoolgirls, the mean menarcheal age was 13.28% years, and a great number of them experienced menarche between the 6th grade of the elementary school and 3rd grade of the middle school.
According to birth year, the age at menarche was 16.0 years for 1930 in Korea and has been gradually earlier to 1.32 years for 1980. The extent of getting younger at menarche was 6.6 months per 10 years.
The timing of menarche was strongly linked to height and body weight of girls. Highly sigificant correlations between parental age and daughter's age at menarche was seen. The daughters of farmers and fishers had the higher age of menarche than
the
daughters who had other paternal occupation. The girls who had high parental educational background experienced. A early onset of menstruation, and early onset of menarche was significantly associated with family conflict.
Irregular menstruation was reported by 33.3%, oligomenorrhea by 1.2%, and polymenorrhea by 6.7% of participants. Premenstrual syndrome was seen by 77.8% of girls.
In conclusion, we found that the downward trend in menarcheal age was still going on in Korea. So when using age of menarche as a indicator of children's health, the development of Korea has been positive until now. The factors that affect age at
menarche were body size, parental age, paternal occupation, parental educational background and family relationship.
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