Age at menarche and its socioeconomic determinants among female students in an urban area in Bangladesh

- Data on age at menarche is scares in developing countries like Bangladesh.
- Age at menarche was in Bangladeshi urban school going adolescents.
- Higher education was significant predictor of age at menarche.

This cross-sectional study aimed to determine the age at menarche and its socioeconomic determinants among urban female students (n = 680) in Bangladesh. The mean age of the respondents was 14 ± 1.43 years. Majority of the respondents were unmarried (98.4%). The mean age at menarche was 11.6 ± 3.6 years, median 12 years. Almost one-third (35.7%) of the participants had menarche at the age of 12 years. There was no statistically significant difference between age at menarche before and after 12 years with the socio-economic characteristics, except education (p = <0.001). In the multivariate model, only higher education was statistically significant predictor of age at menarche.