Dairy intake in relation to breast and pubertal development in Chilean girls

• Published in: The American journal of clinical nutrition Vol. 105; no. 5; pp. 1166 - 1175
• Main Authors: Gaskins, Audrey J, Pereira, Ana, Quintiliano, Daiana, Shepherd, John A, Uauy, Ricardo, Corvalán, Camila, Michels, Karin B
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States American Society for Clinical Nutrition, Inc 01.05.2017; American Society for Nutrition
• Subjects: Absorptiometry, Photon; Age; Age Factors; Animals; Beverages; Breast; Breast - growth & development; Breasts; Child; childhood; Children; Chile; cohort studies; dairy consumption; Dairy Products; Data processing; Diet; Diet Records; Dietary Sucrose - adverse effects; Dual energy X-ray absorptiometry; Energy consumption; Energy Intake; Energy measurement; Feeding Behavior; Female; Girls; Humans; Longitudinal Studies; low fat milk; Mammary gland; mammary glands; Mammary Glands, Human; Menarche; Mental Recall; Milk; Nutritional Epidemiology and Public Health; obesity; Prospective Studies; Puberty; Puberty, Precocious - etiology; Sexual Maturation; somatotropin; Yogurt; Chile; development; puberty; age at menarche; dairy; breast composition
• ISSN: 0002-9165; 1938-3207; 1938-3207
• DOI: 10.3945/ajcn.116.150359

Frequent dairy consumption in childhood has been related to higher growth-hormone concentrations that may affect mammary gland and pubertal development. We evaluated the relation of dairy intake to breast composition at Tanner stage 4 and age at menarche. A total of 515 Chilean girls are included in the Growth and Obesity Cohort Study. The subjects have been followed longitudinally since they were 3-4 y old (from 2006 to the present). Starting in 2013, diet was assessed every 6 mo via a 24-h recall. The breast fibroglandular volume (FGV) was measured with the use of dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry at Tanner stage 4. The date of menarche was reported every 6 mo. Our analysis included 290 girls with data on prospective diet and breast composition and 324 girls with data on prospective diet and age at menarche. The mean ± SD breast FGV and percentage of fibroglandular volume (%FGV) (i.e., FGV divided by total breast volume times 100) at Tanner stage 4 was 81.7 ± 32.2 cm and 42.0% ± 16.7%, respectively. Only sweetened, artificially flavored milk-based drinks were associated with the %FGV with girls who consumed >125 g/d having a %FGV that was 4.5% (95% CI: 0.9%, 8.1%) higher than that of girls who consumed none ( -trend = 0.007). Yogurt intake was associated with a lower FGV. Specifically, girls who consumed >125 g yogurt/d had -10.2 cm (95% CI: -20.2, -0.3 cm ) less FGV than did girls who consumed no yogurt ( -trend = 0.03). The majority (90.7%) of girls in our cohort attained menarche before the data analyses with a mean ± SD age at menarche of 11.9 ± 0.7 y. In multivariable models, low-fat dairy, low-fat milk, and yogurt intakes were associated with a later age at menarche. In particular, girls who consumed >125 g yogurt/d had menarche, on average, 4.6 mo (95% CI: 1.9, 7.4 mo) later than girls who consumed no yogurt ( -trend = 0.01). More-frequent consumption of sweetened, artificially-flavored milk-based drinks is associated with a higher %FGV, whereas higher yogurt intake is associated with a lower FGV and delayed age at menarche in Chilean girls.