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  • Title: Age at menarche in Peninsular Malaysia: time trends, ethnic differentials, and association with ages at marriage and at first birth.
    Author: Tan Boon Ann, Othman R, Butz WP, Davanzo J.
    Journal: Malays J Reprod Health; 1983 Dec; 1(2):91-108. PubMed ID: 12313339.
    Abstract:
    This study, based on respondent-reported data from the 1976-77 Malaysian Family Life Survey, analyzeed the association between age at menarche and several family-level factors. The data on mean age at menarche for birth cohorts of pre-1929 to post-1955, by ethnic group, indicate substantial declines for Chinese and Indians but virtually no change for Malays. Age at menarche has fallen by 3.25 months/decade for women born in 1926-61. Girls raised in households of higher socioeconomic status tend to experience earlier menarche. In fact, about half of the secular decline in age at menarche is attributable to improvements in socioeconomic level and, to a lesser extent, declines in the proportion of foreign births. In this sample, age at menarche was related to age at 1st marriage and age at 1st birth. Moreover, controlling for age at menarche affects the relationship between demographic and socioeconomic variables on the 1 hand and age at marriage and 1st birth on the other. When ethnicity is controlled, a 1 year delay in menarche is associated with a 3 month delay in age at marriage. When the socioeconomic status and childhood abroad indices are controlled, the coefficient of age at menarche increases by almost 1/3. When ethnicity, birthdate, childhood abroad, and socioeconomic status are controlled, each 1 year delay in menarche is associated, on average, with a 5 month delay in age at marriage. Even when socioeconomic variables are controlled, the relationship between age at menarche and at marriage is much smaller for Chinese women than for Indian or Malay women, perhaps because the average age between these 2 events is greater for Chinese (6.8 years, versus 3.5 years for Malays and 4.6 years for Indians). These findings suggest that studies that look only at the relationship between age at menarche and age at 1st marriage, without controlling for other factors, will underestimate the relationship. In addition, it is noted that the observed trend toward falling age at menarche may justify the introduction of family life education at earlier ages.
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