January - March 2010, Volume 6, Issue 1

Tarcea M, Szavuj J, Toma F, Rada C, Zugravu C

Sexual maturation amongst adolescents from Mures county

Acta Endo (Buc) 2010, 6 (1): 57-72
doi: 10.4183/aeb.2010.57

Background. Evaluation of features of puberal maturity on a representative specimen of adolescents from Mures county.\r\nMaterial and method. The collected data came from the Public Health Authority in 2008, from 2013 teenagers, with ages ranging between 11–18 years, according to the Physical development registration file, Tanner stages and demographic data.\r\nResults. Boys grew at a faster rate in both height and weight than girls. In the urban areas, there is a preponderence for children in Tanner stages I-IV, compared to Tanner stage V. In the rural area, girls from middle school cover stage I then stage V of development and boys prevail in stage III and decrease in stage V. The teenagers of Mures county between 15-18 of age, both boys and girls, have a higher frequency than the rest of the teenage population of the country in stage V development, and for ages between 11–14 there is a majority for stage I. Correlating the parent’s education level and the puberal maturation of teenagers, we concluded that elementary and medium education levels prevail for all Tanner stages involved, without significant differences between them. Late puberty is more frequently associated to the parent’s elementary education level (68.34%) and rural area, in both genders. In the rural area there is a higher preponderence of children with rank over 2, due to the tendency of families in the urban area to reduce the children’ number in the past years. Out of the entire study group, 3.75% were disharmonious with obesity: 3.94% of boys and 3.56% of girls, with a slight predominance in younger girls. There is no significant correlation between obesity and birth weight (p=0.441) or between puberal maturity level and weight.\r\nConclusion. We must stress upon the importance of monitoring the aspects of physical, neuropsychic development and puberal maturity in children, considered influence factors of morbidity.

Keywords: sexual maturation, puberty, adolescent, anthropometry, development

Correspondence: Monica Tarcea, University of Medicine and Pharmacy Targu-Mures, Dept.of\r\nHygiene and Public Health, Gh. Marinescu street, no 38, Targu-Mures, Romania, code 540139,\r\nphone 40744791967, fax 40265215551/207,\r\nEmail: monaumf2001@yahoo.com