Early maternal menarche associated with overweight and obesity in children

Background: The age of maternal menarche is thought to be intergenerationally associated with the incidence of overweight and obesity in their offspring, but studies are limited.

Objective: To determine the intergenerational relationship between maternal age at menarche and the incidence of childhood obesity and overweight at preschool age.

Methods: This research is an analytic cross-sectional study with a cluster sampling method which was conducted in preschool in Denpasar, Bali. Younger maternal menarche was defined as the age of maternal menarche less than 12 years. Overweight and obesity in children are expressed based on the growth curve of the World Health Organization (WHO) Body Mass Index/Age > +2 SD.

Results: This study was conducted from October to November 2019 involving 204 samples, with the proportion of overweight and obese children were 28.9%. The mean age of menarche in mothers was 13.28 (SD +1.97) years with 11% of mothers experiencing early maturation. The adjusted ratio prevalence of maternal menarche <11 years was 3.96 (95% CI 1.56-10.08) and the nutritional status of overweight and obesity in the father was 3.22 (95% CI 1.67-6.26).

Conclusion: In this study, it was found that there was a relationship between younger maternal age at menarche and overweight and obesity nutritional status in fathers with the incidence of overweight and obesity in children.