The age at menarche and age at first birth in an undernourished population.

A statistically significant relationship has been found between the age at menarche and the age at first birth among chronically-malnourished, lower-class Viennese women born in the late nineteenth century. Because the age at menarche depends on nutritional status, the above relationship is an indication that nutritional status must also have correlated positively with fertility rate, and therefore with population growth in societies with similar characteristics as this sample. Thus, the nutrition sensitivity of the age of first birth, and therefore of population growth are established in a chronically malnourished non-contraceptive historical population.