Abstract
BACKGROUND: Menarche, as an important parameter in the assessment of scoliosis progression in girls, is proven to be dependent on geographical latitude. The aim of this study was to determine whether the age of menarche differs in scoliotic and non-scoliotic Balkan girls and the relationship between menarche and the laterality of scoliotic curves. PARTICIPANTS AND METHODS: This is a retrospective study with three groups: scoliotic, non-scoliotic, and control. Patient data collection and analysis were approved by the Ethical Committee of the Institute. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS: The SPSS 24 program was used, and we employed One-way ANOVA, Fisher's, and Chi-squared tests to compare different groups. Statistical significance was defined as p < 0.05. RESULTS: No statistically significant difference was found in the age of menarche between the three groups (p = 0.168). In the scoliotic postmenarchal group, the primary right curve was dominant in 54.80%, while in the scoliotic premenarchal group, the primary left curve was dominant in 60.09% (p < 0.01). CONCLUSION: In Balkan girls from Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia, there was no significant difference in the age of menarche between scoliotic and non-scoliotic girls. A significant difference was found in the laterality of the primary curve in premenarchal and postmenarchal scoliotic girls.