Sexual maturation and obesity in 9- and 10-year-old black and white girls: the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute Growth and Health Study.
OBJECTIVE
To assess the relationship between pubertal maturation and obesity in 9- and 10-year-old black and white girls.


METHODS
Cross-sectional analysis of cohort baseline data.


METHODS
A cohort of 2379 girls recruited from selected schools in Richmond, Calif., and greater Cincinnati, Ohio, and from the membership rolls of a prepaid group practice in greater Washington, D.C.


RESULTS
Sixty-four percent of black girls had begun pubertal maturation compared with 33% of white girls. In prepubertal girls, racial differences in height, weight, body mass index (kilograms per square meter) and skin-fold thickness were not significant. Within each race, onset of pubertal maturation was associated with greater height, weight, body mass index, and skin-fold measurements. Within 9-year-old girls who had begun pubertal maturation but not reached menarche, black girls were taller and heavier than white girls. Among pubertal but premenarcheal 10-year-old subjects, black girls were taller and heavier and had greater body mass index and subscapular skin-fold values. After analyses were adjusted for pubertal maturation stage by means of pubic hair development, 10-year-old pubertal black girls remained taller and heavier, but racial differences in body mass index and the sum of skin-fold measurements ceased to be significant.


CONCLUSIONS
These findings suggest that the initiation of racial differences in obesity are related, at least temporally, to pubertal maturation.
Morrison
J A
JA
Division of Cardiology, Children's Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati, Ohio.
Barton
B
B
Biro
F M
FM
Sprecher
D L
DL
Falkner
F
F
Obarzanek
E
E
D044383:Black People; D002648:Child; D015331:Cohort Studies; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D009765:Obesity / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D011627:Puberty / Q000502:physiology; D012741:Sexual Maturation; D044465:White People