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Obesity Affects Sexual Maturation in Girls Differently Than in Boys
A DGReview of :"Is Obesity Associated With Early Sexual Maturation? A Comparison of the Association in American Boys Versus Girls."
Pediatrics Electronic Pages
11/11/2002
By Elda Hauschildt
Obesity is associated with sexual maturation in both boys and girls, but there is a difference by gender.
United States researcher Dr. Y. Wang of the University of Illinois at Chicago reports obese girls are twice as likely to mature early (odds ratio, 2.0), but obese boys are less than half as likely to mature early (odds ratio, 0.4) in comparison with other children.
"Fatness (body mass index and skinfold thickness) was associated with sexual maturation stages and with early maturation in boys and girls, but the association were in opposite directions," Dr. Wang points out.
"Compared with their counterparts, early maturing boys were thinner, whereas early maturing girls were fatter."
Dr. Wang examined the influence of early sex maturation on fatness in boys and compared it with girls in 1,501 girls and 1,520 boys aged from eight years to 14 years, participating in the US Third National Health and Nutrition Examination survey from 1988 through 1994.
Complete anthropometry and sexual maturation data were available on all participants. Subjects were classified as either early maturers or others, based on each child's age and sexual maturation status.
Sexual maturation status was based on Tanner genitalia stages for boys and breast stages for girls. Overweight was defined as body mass index equal to or greater than the 85th percentile. Obesity was set as body mass index equal to or greater than the 95th percentile.
Prevalence of overweight was 22.6 percent in early maturing boys compared with 31.6 percent in other boys. In girls, it was 34.4 percent in early maturers compared with 23.2 percent in other girls.
In boys, prevalence of obesity was 6.7 percent in early maturers compared with 14.8 percent in other boys. Obesity was 15.6 percent in early maturing girls, compared with 8.1 percent in other girls.
"Maturation status should be taken into consideration when assessing child and adolescent obesity," the researchers concluded.
Pediatrics, 2002; 110: 903-910.
"Is Obesity Associated With Early Sexual Maturation? A Comparison of the Association in American Boys Versus Girls."
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