Association of maternal and intrauterine characteristics with age at menarche in a multiethnic population in Hawaii.
This study seeks to further elucidate the mother-daughter hormonal relationship and its effects on daughter's breast cancer risk through the association with early age at menarche. Four hundred and thirty-eight healthy girls, age 9-18 and of White, Asian, and/or Polynesian race/ethnicity, were recruited from an HMO on Oahu, Hawaii. Anthropometric measures were taken at a clinic visit, and family background questionnaires were completed. Cox proportional hazards regression was used to test the association of maternal and intrauterine hormone-related exposures with age at menarche. Weight and gestational age at birth and maternal pregnancy-induced nausea were not associated with age at menarche. Each year older of the mother's age at menarche was associated with a 21% reduced risk of an early age at menarche for the daughter (95% CI: 0.73-0.86). This association between mother's and daughter's menarcheal age was statistically significant for girls of Asian, White, and Mixed, Asian/White race/ethnicity, but not for girls of Mixed, part-Polynesian race/ethnicity (p (interaction) = 0.01). There was a suggestion that maternal history of breast cancer was associated with an increased risk of early age at menarche (HR = 2.18, 95% CI: 0.95-4.98); there was no association with second-degree family history. These findings support the hypothesis that maternal and intrauterine hormone-related exposures are associated with age at menarche.
Epidemiology Program, Cancer Research Center of Hawaii, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, HI, USA. meira.epplein@vanderbilt.edu
Meira
M
Epplein
Rachel
R
Novotny
Yihe
Y
Daida
Vinutha
V
Vijayadeva
Alvin T
AT
Onaka
Loïc
L
Le Marchand
D000293:Adolescent; D000367:Age Factors; D044466:Asian People / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000208:ethnology / Q000503:physiopathology; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D006254:Hawaii; D006801:Humans; D008572:Menarche / Q000208:ethnology* / Q000502:physiology*; D011114:Polynesia / Q000208:ethnology; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D018570:Risk Assessment / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012307:Risk Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D044465:White People / Q000706:statistics & numerical data