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Association of maternal and intrauterine characteristics with age at menarche in a multiethnic population in Hawaii

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Abstract

This study seeks to further elucidate the mother–daughter hormonal relationship and its effects on daughter’s breast cancer risk through the association with early age at menarche. Four hundred and thirty-eight healthy girls, age 9–18 and of White, Asian, and/or Polynesian race/ethnicity, were recruited from an HMO on Oahu, Hawaii. Anthropometric measures were taken at a clinic visit, and family background questionnaires were completed. Cox proportional hazards regression was used to test the association of maternal and intrauterine hormone-related exposures with age at menarche. Weight and gestational age at birth and maternal pregnancy-induced nausea were not associated with age at menarche. Each year older of the mother’s age at menarche was associated with a 21% reduced risk of an early age at menarche for the daughter (95% CI: 0.73–0.86). This association between mother’s and daughter’s menarcheal age was statistically significant for girls of Asian, White, and Mixed, Asian/White race/ethnicity, but not for girls of Mixed, part-Polynesian race/ethnicity (p interaction = 0.01). There was a suggestion that maternal history of breast cancer was associated with an increased risk of early age at menarche (HR = 2.18, 95% CI: 0.95–4.98); there was no association with second-degree family history. These findings support the hypothesis that maternal and intrauterine hormone-related exposures are associated with age at menarche.

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Financial support

This study was partially supported by Department of Defense grant BC032028, USDA Grant # 99-00700, and a Research Centers in Minority Institutions award, P20 RR11091, from the National Center for Research Resources, National Institutes of Health. One of the authors (ME) was supported by a postdoctoral fellowship on grant R25 CA 90956.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Epidemiology Program, Cancer Research Center of Hawaii, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, HI, USA

    Meira Epplein, Rachel Novotny, Vinutha Vijayadeva & Loïc Le Marchand

  2. Department of Human Nutrition, Food and Animal Science, College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, HI, USA

    Rachel Novotny, Yihe Daida & Vinutha Vijayadeva

  3. Kaiser Permanente, Center for Health Research Hawaii, Honolulu, HI, USA

    Rachel Novotny & Yihe Daida

  4. Office of Health Status Monitoring, Hawaii State Department of Health, Honolulu, HI, USA

    Alvin T. Onaka

  5. Division of Epidemiology, School of Medicine, Vanderbilt University, 2525 West End Ave, 6th floor, Nashville, TN, 37203, USA

    Meira Epplein

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  1. Meira Epplein
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  2. Rachel Novotny
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  3. Yihe Daida
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  4. Vinutha Vijayadeva
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  6. Loïc Le Marchand
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Correspondence to Meira Epplein.

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Epplein, M., Novotny, R., Daida, Y. et al. Association of maternal and intrauterine characteristics with age at menarche in a multiethnic population in Hawaii. Cancer Causes Control 21, 259–268 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10552-009-9457-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10552-009-9457-1

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