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Obesity Might Trigger Early Puberty in Girls

The age at which puberty starts in some girls has continued to drop, finds the latest study to suggest obesity may be a key trigger.

The start of puberty (determined by a specific stage of breast development) was at a median age of 9.7 years old in white, non-Hispanic girls, 4 months earlier than in a landmark 1997 study that first documented early puberty in U.S. girls. The report is in December's Pediatrics.

The new study tracked 1,200 girls (enrolled at ages 6 to 8) over seven years. It found blacks continue to develop earlier than whites, reaching puberty at a median age of 8.8, vs. 9.3 years for Hispanics and 9.7 for Asians.

But blacks matured at similar ages in the 1997 study; it was not clear why there was no change for blacks. For Hispanics and Asians, data was insufficient to know if puberty age changed.

While previous studies found that race as well as body mass index (BMI) played a role in predicting the onset of puberty, "BMI supplants race as the No. 1 factor" in the new analysis, says lead author Frank Biro, director of adolescent medicine at Cincinnati Children's Hospital.

Girls with higher BMIs in all race and ethnic groups were progressively more likely to have started puberty.

Source: USA Today
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/11/04/obesity-early-puberty/3330179/