Comparative Study of General Health Status among Adolescent Girls with Early and Late Menarche

Research studies on adolescent girls have revealed during menarche, they undergo psychological distress.  The present study is aimed to assess the general health status among adolescent girls with early and late menarche. A total of 360 adolescent girls comprising of 180 each in early and late menarche were randomly selected from in and around Mysuru district.  They were administered General health questionnaire (GHQ) 1978, developed by Goldberg, which measured the general health status of the adolescent girls in four subscales-somatic symptoms, anxiety/Insomnia, social dysfunction, severe depression and total GHQ scores.  The data were analysed using two-way Analysis of variance, taking general health status scores as dependent and groups and area as independent variables. Results revealed that adolescent girls in late menarche had more somatic symptoms than adolescent girls in late menarche stage. Adolescent girls in early and late menarche did not differ significantly in Anxiety/Insomnia, Social dysfunction, Severe depression and total GHQ scores. Adolescent girls hailing from rural area had more somatic symptoms, suffered more from anxiety/insomnia than adolescent girls hailing from urban areas.