According to a study from the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute (MCRI) in Melbourne, Australian children growing up in poorer households are more likely to face early puberty. They also are more likely to have poorer health later in life.
While girls from disadvantaged households have double the risk of starting puberty early, at age 10 or 11, boys have more than four times the risk, says the study published in the journal Pediatrics.
During the study, MCRI researchers surveyed approximately 3,700 children. The Growing Up in Australia study recruited these children at birth, examining how social determinants affected them throughout their childhood.
Researchers asked the children’s parents to report any signs of puberty at ages 8 to 9 and ages 10 to 11. These signs included growth spurts, pubic hair and skin changes, as well as breast growth and menstruation for girls, and voice deepening and facial hair for boys.
The study found that, at ages 10 and 11, approximately 19 percent of boys and 21 percent of girls in the study had experienced early puberty.
According to lead author associate professor Ying Sun, a visiting academic at MCRI from China, “ongoing exposure to extremely unfavorable household socioeconomic position in boys independently predicted a four-fold increase in the rate of early puberty.”
“In girls, the increase was nearly two fold, when compared with those from a favorable background,” says Sun. “Our findings raise a possibility that the timing of puberty may play a role in the links between early social disadvantage, and health problems later on in life.”
Fellow researcher Professor Melissa Wake, the new Cure Kids professor of child health research at the Liggins Institute and The University of Auckland Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences, drew a similar conclusion.
“Early puberty may be one of the ways in which social disadvantage gets under the skin and influences children’s later life chances,” says Wake. Poverty ultimately can affect children “both in terms of [their] economic prosperity and health” in the future, says Wake.
Wake believes researchers will likely find similar patterns in New Zealand children.
New Zealand has noticed the increasing amount of children starting puberty at an early age in comparison to past generations. It, as well as other countries, is already researching the several factors associated with early puberty, including social disadvantage, mental health issues and obesity.
Wake, Sun and their research team ultimately seek to understand the link between poverty and early puberty.
According to Sun, the link may have evolutionary causes. Children facing hardship, such as economic disadvantages, harsh physical environments and absence of a father, may naturally be programmed to begin the reproductive process early. This early entrance into puberty would ensure that their genes are passed on to their offspring.
Nonetheless, there may be other causes as well.
“We now know quite a lot more about the switches for the pubertal process and think that childhood disadvantage is one of a number of factors, including prematurity and being overweight early in childhood that switch the process on,” says Sun.
Professor George Patton, senior author of the Australian study, emphasizes the importance of understanding how early puberty can affect children and adolescent’s health later in life.
“Early maturation has links in girls with emotional, behavioral and social problems during adolescence including depressive disorders, substance disorders, eating disorders and precocious sexuality,” he says.
Early puberty can also lead to reproductive tract cancers and cardio-metabolic diseases.
These findings ultimately “highlight the importance of tackling these issues at a society-wide level,” says Wake.
Fortunately, steps to counteract early puberty in impoverished children could be made soon. According to Sun, MCRI’s research will “potentially inform new public health initiatives that improve the health and wellbeing of all children for the rest of their lives.”
Featured image via Pixabay
