title: [Menarche, menstrual and sociodemographic characteristics of Puerto Rican female athletes in the XV and XVI Central American and Caribbean Games].
abstract: This investigation described maturation, menstrual and socio-demographic characteristics of 65 Puerto Rican women athletes that were interviewed during the XVI Central American and Caribbean Games (CACG), Mexico City in 1990. The results were compared with those of Puerto Rican women athletes (n = 52) at the XV CACG, Santiago Dominican Republic, 1986. The quantitative variables (age, age at initiation of training, years of training, age at menarche, birth order, and family size) were not statistically different (t-independent, p > or = 0.05). The observed frequencies for the qualitative variables (menstrual characteristics, degree of certainty in the recall of age of menarche, use of oral contraceptives, and marital status) were very similar.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  the women at the XVI CAC in Mexico demonstrated similar maturational, menstrual and socio-demographic characteristics to the those athletes evaluated four years earlier in Santiago and based on their long history of training, both samples were representative of athletically mature athletes. The findings were very similar to those reported for olympic athletes and such data expands the available information on Puerto Rican women athletes.
authors.affiliation: Unidad de Fisiología del Ejercicio, Centro de Salud Deportiva y Ciencias del Ejercicio, Salinas, Puerto Rico 00751.
authors.forename: M A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Rivera
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Mendez Zamora
authors.forename: R M
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Matos
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Rivera
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology*; D003276:Contraceptives, Oral / Q000008:administration & dosage; D004293:Dominican Republic; D005190:Family; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008572:Menarche / Q000502:physiology*; D008598:Menstruation / Q000502:physiology*; D008599:Menstruation Disturbances / Q000453:epidemiology; D008800:Mexico; D011647:Puerto Rico / Q000208:ethnology; D013177:Sports
chemical_list: D003276:Contraceptives, Oral
vernacular_title: Menarquia, características menstruales y sociodemográficas de mujeres atletas puertorriqueñas en los XV y XVI Juegos Centroamericanos y del Caribe.