CHICAGO - Childhood obesity in the United States appears to be causing girls 
to reach puberty at an earlier age, for reasons that are not clear, a study said 
on Monday. 
 
 
 | 
    An overweight pedestrian sits on a wall in a file photo. 
 Childhood obesity in the United States appears to be causing girls to 
 reach puberty at an earlier age, for reasons that are not clear, a study 
 said on Monday. [Reuters]
  
  | 
The report from the University 
of Michigan's Mott Children's Hospital said a multiyear study following a group 
of 354 girls found that those who were fatter at age 3 and who gained weight 
during the next three years reached puberty, as defined by breast development, 
by age 9. 
"Our finding that increased body fatness is associated with the earlier onset 
of puberty provides additional evidence that growing rates of obesity among 
children in this country may be contributing to the trend of early maturation in 
girls," said Dr. Joyce Lee, the lead author. 
"Previous studies had found that girls who have earlier puberty tend to have 
higher body mass index, but it was unclear whether puberty led to the weight 
gain or weight gain led to the earlier onset of puberty," she added. 
"Our study offers evidence that it is the latter," Lee said. 
Earlier studies have found that US girls are reaching puberty earlier than 
was the case 30 years ago, a time span during which rates of childhood obesity 
also increased, the study said. 
In the study girls were classified as at risk for being overweight if their 
body mass index (a measurement of weight related to age and height) was between 
the 85th and 95th percentiles, and defined as overweight if the measurement was 
greater than the 95th percentile. 
The researchers said that 168 of the girls were classified as being "in 
puberty" by the age of 9 and nearly two dozen reported having their first 
menstrual period by two years later. 
Higher body mass index scores at all ages had a "strong association with 
earlier onset of puberty, the authors said. 
The study was published in Pediatrics, the journal of the American Academy of 
Pediatrics. 
"Earlier onset of puberty in girls has been associated with a number of 
adverse outcomes, including psychiatric disorders and deficits in psychosocial 
functioning, earlier initiation of alcohol use, sexual intercourse and teenage 
pregnancy and increased rates of adult obesity and reproductive cancers," the 
study said.