title: Maturational timing as a factor in female fatness and obesity.
abstract: As shown in more than 16 000 white participants in two major studies, menarcheal timing is a major determinant of weight and fatness in early adulthood. Early-maturing women are slightly shorter than late-maturing women but weigh 4 kg more. Early maturers are 30% fatter than late maturers, approximately +0.46 Z scores for each of four different skinfolds. Early maturers are far more often obese than late maturers (risk ratio = 1.8). The data suggest that maturational timing has a greater long-term effect on the level of fatness than the level of fatness had on maturational timing.
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000886:Anthropometry; D001827:Body Height; D001835:Body Weight; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008572:Menarche; D009765:Obesity / Q000209:etiology* / Q000503:physiopathology; D012306:Risk; D012885:Skinfold Thickness; D014481:United States