Abstract
Genetic and environmental influences on age at menarche (AAM) have rarely been examined in Asian females. This study aimed to investigate the heritability of AAM in South Korean female twins. The AAM data from 1370 female twins (933 monozygotic [MZ] twins, 294 dizygotic [DZ] twins and 160 female members of opposite-sex DZ twins) born between 1988 and 2001 were analyzed. The age of the sample at the time of the assessment ranged from 16 to 28 years with a mean of 19.3 (SD = 2.2) years. The mean AAM in the total sample was 12.49 (SD = 1.41) years. Although the mean AAM decreased with increasing birth years, it levelled off in birth years 2000-2001. Maximum likelihood MZ and DZ twin correlations were 0.72 [95% CI (0.67, 0.76)] and 0.35 [95% CI (0.19, 0.50)], respectively. The results of model-fitting analysis indicated that the additive genetic and individual-specific environmental effects were 72% [95% CI (67%, 76%)] and 28% [95% CI (24%, 33%)], respectively. Neither nonadditive genetic nor shared environmental effects were significant.
Highlights
Menarche is a complex physiological event in a woman’s life, marking the beginning of reproductive capability
Early Age at menarche (AAM) has been associated with depression (Kaltiala-Heino et al, 2003), conduct disorder (Burt et al, 2006), eating disorders (Kaltiala-Heino et al, 2001), obesity (Ong et al, 2007), type 2 diabetes (He et al, 2010), breast cancer (Collaborative Group on Hormonal Factors in Breast Cancer, 2012), cardiovascular diseases (Feng et al, 2008) and spontaneous abortion (Liestol, 1980)
The mean AAM decreased more rapidly in South Korean females than in European or American counterparts, perhaps due to the speed of environmental changes that have occurred in South Korea in the past decades
Summary
Menarche is a complex physiological event in a woman’s life, marking the beginning of reproductive capability. The mean AAM decreased more rapidly in South Korean females than in European or American counterparts, perhaps due to the speed of environmental changes that have occurred in South Korea in the past decades. Ahn et al (2013) found that the mean AAM decreased by 0.72 years (approximately 8.71 months) per decade in a large nationally representative sample of South Korean females (N = 11,065) born between 1904 and 1995. Given the racial and ethnic differences in the mean AAM (Karapanou & Papadimitriou, 2010) and differences in genetic backgrounds and nutritional and other health-related environmental conditions between East Asians and Europeans, it is important to examine whether or not the heritability of AAM in South Koreans differs from those found in the USA or European countries.
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