The aim of this study was to assess whether household food insecurity is associated with delayed or early menarche among girls in the United States. Thirty-six dyadic household interviews were conducted with mothers and adolescent girls. The interviews included a socio-demographic survey, the USDA Six-Item Short Form Household Food Security Survey Module, anthropometric measurements, and the self-administered Youth-Adolescent Food Frequency Questionnaire. Using non-parametric quantitative analyses, we examined the associations among food insecurity, anthropometrics, diet, and age at menarche. Cox Proportional Hazards Models were used to evaluate the odds of menarche based on household food insecurity. Food insecurity significantly predicted earlier time to menarche. Food insecure girls were 4.38 times more likely to experience menarche at earlier ages when compared to food secure girls (HR = 4.38, p = .04). Furthermore, the hazard of menarche increased by 25% for each unit increase in food insecurity (OR = 1.253, p = .027). The findings suggest that household food insecurity is associated with earlier ages of menarche among girls in this sample. Early menarche has been associated with adult chronic disease risk. Thus, these findings propose that food security initiatives may be used to reduce the prevalence and health consequences of early-onset puberty.

这项研究的目的是评估家庭粮食不安全是否与美国女孩的初潮延迟或初潮有关。对母亲和少女进行了三十六次家庭式访谈。访谈内容包括社会人口统计学调查，美国农业部六项简易家庭食品安全调查模块，人体测量学以及自我管理的青年-青少年食物频率问卷调查。使用非参数的定量分析，我们研究了食品不安全，人体测量学，饮食和初潮年龄之间的关联。考克斯比例危害模型用于评估基于家庭粮食不安全状况的初潮可能性。粮食不安全状况大大预测了初潮的时间。粮食不安全的女孩是4。p = .04）。此外，每过一次粮食不安全状况的增加，初潮的危险就增加25％（OR = 1.253，p = .027）。研究结果表明，在该样本中，家庭粮食不安全与女孩初潮年龄早有关。初潮早期与成人慢性疾病风险有关。因此，这些发现表明，粮食安全举措可用于减少早发青春期的患病率和健康后果。