Gender Differences and Secular Trends in Height, Patterns of Growth and Maturation During Puberty

The "K rmend Growth Study" (KGS) was a series of cross-sectional anthropological surveys repeated in every 10 years in a small Hungarian town for more than 50 years. In this paper the authors are reporting data concerning a special period of children`s development, the puberty and pre-puberty period. Growth patterns of children (aged 3-18 years) were examined in 1958, 1968, 1978, 1988, 1998 and 2008 and were compared. Significant gender differences and secular trends were observed in the growth pattern of 9-15 year old children. Pubertal girls were temporarily taller than their male counterparts. Physical maturation appeared in an earlier age, and lasted for a shorter duration. This paper also focuses on changes in ages at menarche. In the frame of the KGS, data of age at menarche were collected with the "status quo" method, and was analyzed using probit analysis. In the first period of the study positive secular trends were observed in K rmend but by the end of the 20th century secular changes slowed down and reached stagnation.