Objective: Menarche, as a milestone of puberty, may have a long-term effect on health. The present study investigated the association of age at menarche with the incidence of arterial hypertension.
Study design: A total of 4747 post-menarcheal participants of the Tehran Lipid and Glucose Study who met the eligibility criteria were selected. Demographic, lifestyle, reproductive, and anthropometric data, as well as risk factors for cardiovascular diseases, were collected. Participants were classified according to their age at menarche: group I: ≤11 years, group II: 12-15 years, and group III: ≥16 years.
Main outcome measures: A Cox proportional hazards regression model was used to estimate the associations between age at menarche and arterial hypertension outcomes. The generalized estimating equation models were used to compare the trend of changes in systolic and diastolic blood pressure between the three groups.
Results: The mean age of participants at baseline was 33.9 (13.0). At the end of the study, 1261 (26.6 %) participants had arterial hypertension. Women in group III had a 2.04-fold higher risk of arterial hypertension than those in group II. The mean changes in systolic and diastolic blood pressure were 29 % (95 % CI: 0.02-0.57) and 16 % (95 % CI: 0.00-0.38) higher for women in group III compared with group II.
Conclusions: Late menarche could be a risk factor for arterial hypertension, so it is necessary to pay more attention to age at menarche in cardiovascular risk assessment programs.
Keywords: Arterial hypertension; Diastolic blood pressure; Menarcheal age; Metabolic syndrome; Systolic blood pressure.
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