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Early menarche and risk‐taking behavior in Korean adolescent students
Author(s) -
Kim Hyun Soo,
Choe Byeong Moo,
Park Jae Hong,
Kim Seong Hwan
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
asia‐pacific psychiatry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.654
H-Index - 21
eISSN - 1758-5872
pISSN - 1758-5864
DOI - 10.1111/appy.12273
Subject(s) - menarche , medicine , demography , logistic regression , odds ratio , pregnancy , obstetrics , sociology , genetics , biology
The aim of this study is to assess the correlation between early menarche and risk‐taking behavior in a representative sample of Korean adolescent students. Methods Data were drawn from a cross‐sectional, nationally representative sample of 33 829 female adolescents (grades 7‐12) from the 2014 Korean Youth Risk Behavior Web‐based Survey. Logistic regression analysis was conducted to test the association between early menarche and risk‐taking behavior. Results Female adolescents who experienced menarche at an earlier age tended to have an earlier initiation of sexual intercourse (odds ratio [OR] 4.61, 95% CI, 3.05‐6.98, P = .001), smoking (OR 4.29, 95% CI, 3.75‐4.9, P < .001), alcohol drinking (OR 1.13, 95% CI, 1.02‐1.24, P < .001), and substance use (OR 25.16, 95% CI, 18.78‐33.72, P < .001). These adolescents were also at greater risk of pregnancy (OR 4.05, 95% CI, 2.56‐6.41, P = .01) and sexually transmitted diseases (OR 2.35, 95% CI, 1.66‐3.33, P < .001). Discussion Early menarche is significantly associated with risk‐taking behavior in Korean adolescent students. This finding suggests that early educational intervention and social programs are needed for female adolescents with early menarche.