Early-Life Risks of Central Precocious Puberty

Abstract

Objectives: To investigate the factors in early life that may contribute to central precocious puberty (CPP).

Methods: The study utilized data from the Taiwan Puberty Longitudinal Study, including 2241 children under pubertal assessment and a questionnaire of risk factors. We analyzed associations using the Fitting Generalized Linear Models in R (R Core Team, 2023), with R studio (Posit, 2023) version 4.3.1.

Results: Among the 2241 children examined, 745 had CPP. Overall, higher gestational weight gain (GWG) increased the risk of CPP (odds ratio [OR]: 1.03, 95% CI: 1.01-1.05); while higher GWG served as a protective factor in females (OR: 0.97, 95% CI: 0.95-0.99). Maternal gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) also increased the CPP risk, particularly in males (OR: 2.66, 95% CI: 1.00-7.25). Longer exclusive breastfeeding was linked to lower CPP risk overall (OR: 0.96, 95% CI: 0.93-1.00) but was not significant when analyzed by gender.

Conclusions: Higher maternal GWG was associated with an increased risk of CPP overall, while GWG became negatively associated with CPP, only in females. Maternal GDM was linked to a higher risk of CPP, particularly in males. The duration of exclusive breastfeeding was inversely correlated with CPP risk, but this effect was not significant when analyzed by gender.

Keywords: central precocious puberty; early-life risk factors; pediatrics.