A status quo study of pubertal changes in rural and urban school girls of Momo and Mezam divisions of the North West province of Cameroon

Abstract

This study was conducted in the North West Province of Cameroon among some urban and rural schools girls. A Total of 880 school girls filled in the first part of the prepared questionnaire, consisting mainly of date of birth and date of menarche. The second

partof the questionnaire was filled in by the examiner, and I consisted mainly of classification of the pubertal changes observed for each girl according to Tanner classification. The weight and height of each girl was measured at the time of the examination. 24 questionnaires were rejected because of ignorance of birth date or onset of menarche. The mean age of menarche for the urban girls was 13.2 years ± 1.23 years, and for the rural girls, 14.1 ± 1.13 years. Urban girls weighed lllorethan rural girls for each age group. The girls in both urban and rural sectors who had had menarche,

weighed more, and were taller than their counterparts who had not for the same age group. For all the pubertal changes, the rural girls lagged behind the urban girls chronologically.