Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2014 Sep;19(5):444-50.

Menarche age in Iran: A meta-analysis

Nasim Bahrami  1 , Mohammad Ali Soleimani  2 , Yiong Huak Chan  3 , Morteza Ghojazadeh  4 , Parvin Mirmiran  5
Affiliations
Review

Menarche age in Iran: A meta-analysis

Nasim Bahrami et al. Iran J Nurs Midwifery Res. 2014 Sep.

Abstract

Background: Research shows that the age at menarche, as an essential element in the reproductive health of women, had been decreasing in the 19(th) and 20(th) centuries, and shows a huge variation across different countries. There are numerous studies performed in Iran reporting a range of age at menarche. Thus, this meta-analysis aimed to determine the overall mean age at menarche of the girls in Iran.

Materials and methods: All relevant studies were reviewed using sensitive and standard keywords in the databases from 1950 to 2013. Two raters verified a total of 1088 articles based on the inclusion criteria of this study. Forty-seven studies were selected for this meta-analysis. Cochran test was used for samples' homogeneity (Tau-square). The mean age at menarche of the girls in Iran with 95% confidence interval (CI) from the random effects was reported.

Results: The homogeneity assumption for the 47 reviewed studies was attained (Tau-square = 0.00). The mean (95% CI) menarche age of Iranian girls from the random effects was 12.81 (95% CI: 12.56-13.06) years.

Conclusions: The results of this study showed that mean age at menarche was less than that of some European developed countries such as Switzerland, Sweden, and Denmark, more than that reported in some countries such as Greece and Italy, and similar to the values obtained in the United States of America and Colombia. Lower age at menarche in Iran may be largely attributed to the changes in lifestyle and diet of the children.

Keywords: Iran; Menarche; meta-analysis.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of Interest: Nil.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Flow diagram of the studies identified, excluded, and included in the meta-analysis
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Thomas F, Renaud F, Benefice E, de Meeüs T, Guegan JF. International variability of ages at menarche and menopause: Patterns and main determinants. Hum Biol. 2001;73:271–90. - PubMed
    1. Wyshak G, Frisch RE. Evidence for a secular trend in age of menarche. N Engl J Med. 1982;306:1033–5. - PubMed
    1. Ong KK, Ahmed ML, Dunger DB. Lessons from large population studies on timing and tempo of puberty (secular trends and relation to body size): The European trend. Mol Cell Endocrinol. 2006;254:8–12. - PubMed
    1. Onland-Moret N, Peeters P, Van Gils C, Clavel-Chapelon F, Key T, Tjønneland A, et al. Age at Menarche in Relation to Adult Height The EPIC Study. Am J Epidemiol. 2005;162:623–32. - PubMed
    1. Karapanou O, Papadimitriou A. Determinants of menarche. Reprod Biol Endocrinol. 2010;8:115. - PMC - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources