Puberty signs and its relationship with lifestyle in 8-to-10-year-old girls: A descriptive-analytical study

INTRODUCTION: Declining the age of puberty causes many different physical, emotional and social changes that lead to negative consequences in adolescence and middle age. In the past 100 years, the average age of puberty has declined all over the world. External factors related to the lifestyle have effects on general sequences of puberty stages. The present study aimed to evaluate the puberty signs and their relationship with the lifestyle of 8-to-10-year-old girls in Ahvaz City. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This descriptive-analytical study was conducted on 200 girls between 8 to 10 years of age from public schools of Ahvaz City from 2019 to 2020. Multi-stage cluster random sampling was used. The lifestyle questionnaire was distributed among the parents, and the children were examined physically for secondary sex characteristics. To analyze the data, SPSS 22 was used with the analyses and descriptive methods. RESULTS: 57.6% of the children experienced puberty, with an average onset age of 9.36 for girls. There was a significant relationship between the age of puberty onset and birth order (P = 0.007), body mass index (P = 0.001), nutrition of 8-year-old girls (P = 0.008) and alcohol abuse of 9-year-old girls’ families (P = 0.039). There was no significant relationship between the beginning age of puberty with environmental, social and psychological health. CONCLUSION: Results indicated a lower age of puberty onset compared to previous studies in the country. Therefore, these results can be a database for future analyses and comparisons.