Trends and correlates of age at menarche in Colombia: Results from a nationally representative survey

•Age at menarche is a sensitive indicator of population-level environmental and socioeconomic conditions.•A nationally representative sample of Colombian girls was used to examine recent trends and correlates of age at menarche.•There was a decline in age at menarche over birth years 1992–2000 of 0.54 years/decade.•The decline was observed in urban rather than rural areas, and was more pronounced for girls of higher versus lower wealth status. Surveillance of age at menarche could provide useful information on the impact of changing environmental conditions on child health. Nevertheless, nationally representative data are exceedingly rare. The aim of this study was to examine trends and sociodemographic correlates of age at menarche of Colombian girls. The study sample included 15,441 girls born between 1992 and 2000 who participated in the Colombian National Nutrition Survey of 2010. We estimated median menarcheal age using Kaplan–Meier time-to-event analyses. Hazard ratios with 95% confidence intervals were estimated with Cox regression models. The median age at menarche was 12.6 years. There was an estimated decline of 0.54 years/decade (P