Skip Navigation



American Journal of Epidemiology Advance Access published online on March 21, 2008
American Journal of Epidemiology, doi:10.1093/aje/kwn046
This Article
Right arrow Full Text Freely available
Right arrow FREE Full Text (PDF) Freely available
Right arrow All Versions of this Article:
167/11/1287    most recent
kwn046v1
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Disclaimer
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Henderson, K. D.
Right arrow Articles by Pike, M. C.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Henderson, K. D.
Right arrow Articles by Pike, M. C.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

American Journal of Epidemiology © The Author 2008. Published by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org.

Original Contribution

Predictors of the Timing of Natural Menopause in the Multiethnic Cohort Study

Katherine DeLellis Henderson1, Leslie Bernstein1, Brian Henderson2, Laurence Kolonel3 and Malcolm C. Pike2

1 Department of Cancer Etiology, City of Hope National Medical Center, Duarte, CA
2 Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA
3 Cancer Research Center of Hawaii, University of Hawaii, Honolulu, HI

Correspondence to Dr. Katherine DeLellis Henderson, Division of Population Sciences, Department of Cancer Etiology, City of Hope National Medical Center, 1500 East Duarte Road, Duarte, CA 91010 (e-mail: khenderson{at}coh.org).

Received for publication August 3, 2007. Accepted for publication February 11, 2008.

The timing of natural menopause has implications for several health endpoints; in particular, it is a risk factor for breast cancer. The authors investigated factors influencing the timing of natural menopause among 95,704 women with a mean age of 59.7 years (10th–90th percentile range, 47.0–71.0) in five racial/ethnic groups in the Multiethnic Cohort Study, including non-Latina Whites, Japanese Americans, African Americans, Native Hawai'ians, and Latinas. The authors investigated whether race/ethnicity and several lifestyle and reproductive characteristics were associated with the timing of natural menopause. Race/ethnicity was a significant independent predictor of the timing of natural menopause. Other factors, including smoking, age at menarche, parity, and body mass index, did not significantly alter the race/ethnicity-specific hazard ratios. Relative to non-Latina Whites, natural menopause occurred earlier among Latinas (US-born Latinas: hazard ratio (HR) = 1.10, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.07, 1.14; non-US-born Latinas: HR = 1.25, 95% CI: 1.21, 1.30) and later among Japanese Americans (HR = 0.93, 95% CI: 0.90, 0.95). These results support the hypothesis that the timing of natural menopause is driven by a combination of genetic, reproductive, and lifestyle factors.

cohort studies; continental population groups; epidemiologic factors; menopause

Abbreviations: CI, confidence interval; HR, hazard ratio


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?


This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 Am J EpidemiolHome page
S. L. Mumford and R. Hasan
Re: "Predictors of the Timing of Natural Menopause in the Multiethnic Cohort Study"
Am. J. Epidemiol., November 1, 2008; 168(9): 1091 - 1091.
[Full Text] [PDF]

Home page
 Am J EpidemiolHome page
K. DeLellis Henderson, L. Bernstein, B. Henderson, L. Kolonel, and M. Pike
The Authors Reply
Am. J. Epidemiol., November 1, 2008; 168(9): 1091 - 1092.
[Full Text] [PDF]

Home page
 JWatch Women's HealthHome page
Age at Menopause Differs -- a Little -- by Race and Ethnicity
Journal Watch Women's Health, July 24, 2008; 2008(724): 7 - 7.
[Full Text]


Disclaimer: Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.