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
. 2021 Nov 18;16(11):e0260137.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0260137. eCollection 2021.

Determining the timing of pubertal onset via a multicohort analysis of growth

Essi Syrjälä  1 , Harri Niinikoski  2   3   4   5 , Helena E Virtanen  2 , Jorma Ilonen  6   7 , Mikael Knip  8   9   10   11 , Nina Hutri-Kähönen  12 , Katja Pahkala  4   5   13 , Olli T Raitakari  4   5   14 , Wiwat Rodprasert  2 , Jorma Toppari  2   3   5 , Suvi M Virtanen  1   11   15   16 , Riitta Veijola  17   18 , Jaakko Peltonen  19 , Jaakko Nevalainen  1
Affiliations

Determining the timing of pubertal onset via a multicohort analysis of growth

Essi Syrjälä et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

Objective: Growth-based determination of pubertal onset timing would be cheap and practical. We aimed to determine this timing based on pubertal growth markers. Secondary aims were to estimate the differences in growth between cohorts and identify the role of overweight in onset timing.

Design: This multicohort study includes data from three Finnish cohorts-the Type 1 Diabetes Prediction and Prevention (DIPP, N = 2,825) Study, the Special Turku Coronary Risk Factor Intervention Project (STRIP, N = 711), and the Boy cohort (N = 66). Children were monitored for growth and Tanner staging (except in DIPP).

Methods: The growth data were analyzed using a Super-Imposition by Translation And Rotation growth curve model, and pubertal onset analyses were run using a time-to-pubertal onset model.

Results: The time-to-pubertal onset model used age at peak height velocity (aPHV), peak height velocity (PHV), and overweight status as covariates, with interaction between aPHV and overweight status for girls, and succeeded in determining the onset timing. Cross-validation showed a good agreement (71.0% for girls, 77.0% for boys) between the observed and predicted onset timings. Children in STRIP were taller overall (girls: 1.7 [95% CI: 0.9, 2.5] cm, boys: 1.0 [0.3, 2.2] cm) and had higher PHV values (girls: 0.13 [0.02, 0.25] cm/year, boys: 0.35 [0.21, 0.49] cm/year) than those in DIPP. Boys in the Boy cohort were taller (2.3 [0.3, 4.2] cm) compared with DIPP. Overweight girls showed pubertal onset at 1.0 [0.7, 1.4] year earlier compared with other girls. In boys, there was no such difference.

Conclusions: The novel modeling approach provides an opportunity to evaluate the Tanner breast/genital stage-based pubertal onset timing in cohort studies including longitudinal data on growth but lacking pubertal follow-up.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Fig 1
Fig 1. Observed pubertal onset intervals plotted against the predicted pubertal onsets for girls and boys.
Grey areas represent 50%, 75% and 95% prediction intervals.
Fig 2
Fig 2. For girls (above) and boys (below): a) Observed growth for 15 randomly selected children from every cohort, b) SITAR-based cohort-specific average growth curves with height measurements, and c) SITAR-based growth velocity curves.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Dorn LD, Biro FM. Puberty and its measurement: A decade in review. J Res Adolesc. 2011;21: 180–195. doi: 10.1111/j.1532-7795.2010.00722.x - DOI
    1. Sørensen K, Mouritsen A, Aksglaede L, Hagen CP, Mogensen SS, Juul A. Recent secular trends in pubertal timing: implications for evaluation and diagnosis of precocious puberty. Horm Res Paediatr. 2012;77: 137–145. doi: 10.1159/000336325 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Abreu AP, Kaiser UB. Pubertal development and regulation. Lancet Diabetes Endocrinol. 2016;4: 254–264. doi: 10.1016/S2213-8587(15)00418-0 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Tanner JM. Growth at adolescence. 2nd ed. Oxford, England: Blackwell Scientific; 1962.
    1. Grumbach MM, Styne DM. Puberty: Ontogeny, Neuroendocrinology, Physiology, and Disorders. In: Melmed S, Polonsky K, Larsen P, Kronenberg H, editors. Williams Textbook of Endocrinology. Philadelphia, PA: Elsevier; 2012. pp. 1054–1201.

Publication types