Evaluation of Maturity status in female athletes and non-athletes 9 to 12 years old in Ahvaz city

Hormonal changes of puberty undoubtedly significantly affect physiological responses to sports activity and physical function of young people. The aim of this study was to investigate the status of puberty in female athletes and non-athletes aged 9 to 12 years in Ahvaz.

For this purpose, 80 girls working in the field of gymnastics, 125 people in the field of swimming as athletes and 50 people without sports background using the available and targeted sampling method as a sample participated in this study. To assess the maturity of the participants, fasting blood samples of LH and FSH hormones were examined in the laboratory. Also, one-way analysis of variance and Tukey post hoc test were used to evaluate the data using SPSS software version 22 at the significance level of 0.05.

The results showed that there was no significant difference between the levels of FSH (F = 0.640 and P = 0.726) and LH (F = 0.640 and P = 0.726) in female athletes and non-athletes.

According to the findings of the study in terms of hormonal indicators of puberty, gymnastics and swimming do not cause precedence or delay in puberty and some untimely changes in puberty may be due to socioeconomic status, nutrition and family conditions.