Contrary to some reports, girls who enter puberty early do not have an increased likelihood of becoming overweight or obese in adulthood, according to a new report.

Rather, overweight girls tend to get their periods early, and they are likely to continue to be heavy as adults. “The timing of puberty is a consequence of childhood overweight, not a cause”, said Dr. Aviva Must, from Tufts University School of Medicine, Boston.

The researcher stresses the importance of not letting children become overweight. “The focus should be on annual weight screening, clinical management when (overweight is) noted, and prevention for children of healthy weight and those at risk for overweight,” she advised.

Must and her associates used data from the Newton Girls Study, a study of physical growth and sexual maturation, to examine the influence of early weight and maturational timing on the subsequent weight of 448 adult women.

Age at first menstruation (i.e., menarche) weakly correlated with prior body mass index or BMI, a measure of weight in relation to height, and with adult BMI, the team reports in the medical journal Pediatrics.

Girls who were overweight before menarche were nearly eight times more likely to be overweight as adults, the report indicates.

Upon analysis of the data, early menarche by itself was not a significant predictor of adult overweight, the researchers report.

Weight control is far more likely to be successful for a moderately overweight child  than one who has become severely obese, Must pointed out. “A child doesn’t become severely overweight overnight - early intervention is extremely important.”

SOURCE: Pediatrics, September 2005.