A cross sectional study on the precocious puberty among girls in the age group of 11-15 years, in two schools in Kollam

Abstract

Background: Puberty is the period during which human development progresses, from the first pubertal sign to full sexual maturation. Precocious puberty is a common problem affecting up to 29 per 100 000 girls per year. The objective of this study is to find out the prevalence of precocious puberty among school going girls and to find out relation with various risk factors.Methods: A cross sectional study was conducted by enrolling 250 school going girls by selecting one school each from urban and rural setup. Prevalence of precocious puberty was expressed in percentage and Chi square test was applied to check association. P value for statistical significance was fixed at P<0.05.Results: The prevalence of precocious puberty was found to be 10.4%. In urban it was found to be 12.35% and in rural it was 8.43%. Girls whose fathers have primary education are risky to have precocious puberty (P<0.049). Those students who take fish occasionally, that is once or thrice in a week were more prone to have precocious puberty (P<0.000). Prevalence of Precocious puberty is more in rural area when compared to urban area. Parents, especially fathers who were less educated should take of care of their daughter’s health by not giving them dried and junk foods. It is better to take fish daily, rather than once or thrice in a week, occasional consumption of fish is found to be a reason for precocious puberty.Conclusions: Prevalence of Precocious puberty was 10.4%. Fathers of the girls, who are not well educated and occasional fish consumption of girls was found to be the significant reason for Precocious puberty.