Sexual Maturation and Physical Status among the Adoles-cent Jain Girls of Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh, India

摘要

This cross-sectional study is aimed at understanding the nature of sexual matura-tion vis a vis physical status of the Jain girls in comparison with other data of India. A surveywas carried out to assess the development of secondary sexual characters in the backgroundof a purely vegetarian diet, and measurements of height and weight. The present study repre-sents 50 individuals in each age group from 8 through 18 years of Jain girls of Madhya Pra-desh (MP), India. Sexual maturation has been studied in association with onset of menarcheamong 11 through 16 year old girls only. The results show that the early onset of menarchedoes not, in general, help development of secondary sexual characters among the Jain girls.Comparison with a sample of South Indian girls from Andhra Pradesh (AP), who haveattained menarche, reveals that AP girls develop secondary sex characters (breast and pubichair) earlier than Jain girls, but the latter overtakes with higher frequencies at higher ages. Apurely vegetarian diet may have a role in delaying maturation of secondary sex characters.Comparison in height and weight between Jain girls, MP girls and All India girls (ICMR)show higher mean values for Jain girls at almost all ages than those of the other samples. Anearly spurt (9-10 years) in height among Jain girls is noted. Therefore, there is no apparentrelation between physical status and development of secondary sex characters among the Jaingirls of MP, India, but menarche seems to have a positive role in that regard.