Dietary pattern and precocious puberty risk in Chinese girls: a case-control study

The role of dietary intake on precocious puberty remains unclear. This study aimed to investigate the association between the amount and frequency of dietary intake and the risk of precocious puberty in Chinese girls.

In this case-control study, we enrolled 185 precocious puberty girls and 185 age-matched controls. Their dietary intake was assessed through a semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaire. Their sociodemographic and lifestyle data were collected. The associations between dietary intake and risk of precocious puberty were assessed by conditional logistic regression models.

After multivariate adjustment, consuming a higher amount of red meat was associated with higher precocious puberty risk (OR = 2.74, 95% CI: 1.25–6.02), while a higher frequency of fruit ( P for trend = 0.024) and amount of vegetable intake was associated with a lower risk of precocious puberty (P for trend = 0.002). The high vegetable and protein dietary pattern was significantly negatively associated with precocious puberty (OR = 0.78, 95% CI: 0.63–0.97), whereas the high animal food and fruits dietary pattern was remarkably positively associated with precocious puberty (OR = 1.36, 95% CI: 1.09–1.69), after adjusting for age and body mass index.

High vegetable and protein dietary pattern is a protective factor against precocious puberty, while high animal food and fruits dietary pattern is a risk factor for precocious puberty in Chinese girls. Attentions should be paid to a reasonable intake of red meat, eggs, and fruits in children’s daily diet, increase their intake of vegetables, in order to reduce the risk of precocious puberty.