Premium
Changes in age at menarche in Germany: Evidence for a continuing decline
Author(s) -
Ostersehlt Dörte,
DankerHopfe Heidi
Publication year - 1991
Publication title -
american journal of human biology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.559
H-Index - 81
eISSN - 1520-6300
pISSN - 1042-0533
DOI - 10.1002/ajhb.1310030615
Subject(s) - menarche , demography , secular variation , logit , ordered probit , logistic regression , probit , ordered logit , probit model , medicine , geography , statistics , mathematics , sociology
Since there are no recent data on secular changes in growth and maturation of girls from West Germany, two cross‐sectional studies with equal design have been carried out in Bremerhaven, North Germany, in 1979/80 and 1989. The present paper presents the results of an analysis of changes in age at menarche based on status quo data from school girls (1979/80: 2,796; 1989: 2,223) aged between 10.0 and 18.5 years. Probit analyses show a reduction over the 10‐year period from 13.30 ± 1.19 to 13.01 ± 1.21 years, while logit analyses, which fit the empirical data slightly better, show a reduction from 13.29 ± 1.21 to 13.00 ± 1.24 years.