Secular trend in age at menarche among Indian women

Age at menarche is not only a parameter that signifies biological characteristics for women but is also considered as an indicator to measure the quality of life of a population. Moreover, menarche has significant implications on women's health and information about menarcheal age is crucial for health policymakers. However, little is known about the trends in menarcheal age in India. Thus, in order to fill this research gap, the present study aimed to explore the age at menarche, its trend and regional heterogeneity among Indian women. A birth cohort approach was used by polling data from the 1st (1992-93), 4th (2015-16) and 5th (2019-21) rounds of NFHS. Descriptive statistics and bivariate analyses were performed to present the distribution of age at menarche and mean age at menarche across birth cohorts and each category of covariates. A multiple linear regression model was fitted to examine the trend in age at menarche and further to investigate the association of covariates with menarcheal age among Indian women. The analysis demonstrated that a majority of women (66.2%) attained menarche between the ages of 13-14 years. Moreover, about 17.2% of women experienced an early age at menarche, whereas 16.7% of women had a late age at menarche. The mean age at menarche for the sampled women was 13.49 years. The analysis also observed a secular declining trend in menarcheal age among Indian women and a significant variation in the mean age at menarche across birth cohorts. It also highlighted significant socio-economic patterning in menarcheal age among women.