Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item:
https://hdl.handle.net/2440/62315
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Type: | Journal article |
Title: | Lower age at menarche affects survival in older Australian women: results from the Australian Longitudinal Study of Ageing |
Author: | Giles, L. Glonek, G. Moore, V. Davies, M. Luszcz, M. |
Citation: | BMC Public Health, 2010; 10(341):1-10 |
Publisher: | BioMed Central |
Issue Date: | 2010 |
ISSN: | 1471-2458 1471-2458 |
Statement of Responsibility: | Lynne C Giles, Gary FV Glonek, Vivienne M Moore, Michael J Davies and Mary A Luszcz |
Abstract: | Background: While menarche indicates the beginning of a woman's reproductive life, relatively little is known about the association between age at menarche and subsequent morbidity and mortality. We aimed to examine the effect of lower age at menarche on all-cause mortality in older Australian women over 15 years of follow-up. Methods: Data were drawn from the Australian Longitudinal Study of Ageing (n = 1,031 women aged 65-103 years). We estimated the hazard ratio (HR) associated with lower age at menarche using Cox proportional hazards models, and adjusted for a broad range of reproductive, demographic, health and lifestyle covariates. Results: During the follow-up period, 673 women (65%) died (average 7.3 years (SD 4.1) of follow-up for decedents). Women with menses onset < 12 years of age (10.7%; n = 106) had an increased hazard of death over the follow-up period (adjusted HR 1.28; 95%CI 0.99-1.65) compared with women who began menstruating aged ≥ 12 years (89.3%; n = 883). However, when age at menarche was considered as a continuous variable, the adjusted HRs associated with the linear and quadratic terms for age at menarche were not statistically significant at a 5% level of significance (linear HR 0.76; 95%CI 0.56 - 1.04; quadratic HR 1.01; 95%CI 1.00-1.02). Conclusion: Women with lower age at menarche may have reduced survival into old age. These results lend support to the known associations between earlier menarche and risk of metabolic disease in early adulthood. Strategies to minimise earlier menarche, such as promoting healthy weights and minimising family dysfunction during childhood, may also have positive longer-term effects on survival in later life. |
Keywords: | Humans Metabolic Diseases Mortality Proportional Hazards Models Risk Factors Longitudinal Studies Life Style Age Factors Aging Menarche Aged Aged, 80 and over Women's Health Australia Female Male |
Description: | Extent: 10p. |
Rights: | Copyright 2010 Giles et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative CommonsAttribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
DOI: | 10.1186/1471-2458-10-341 |
Grant ID: | http://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/LP0669272 http://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/DP0879152 http://purl.org/au-research/grants/nhmrc/229922 http://purl.org/au-research/grants/nhmrc/465437 http://purl.org/au-research/grants/nhmrc/465455 |
Published version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2458-10-341 |
Appears in Collections: | Aurora harvest 5 Public Health publications |
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hdl_62315.pdf | Published version | 437.29 kB | Adobe PDF | View/Open |
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