Measuring the accuracy of self-reported height and weight in a community-based sample of young people Bowring, Anna L., Peeters, Anna, Freak-Poli, Rosanne, Lim, Megan S. C., Gouillou, Maelenn and Hellard, Margaret 2012, Measuring the accuracy of self-reported height and weight in a community-based sample of young people, BMC medical research methodology, vol. 12, Article number: 175, pp. 1-8, doi: 10.1186/1471-2288-12-175. Attached Files Name Description MIMEType Size Downloads peeters-measuringtheaccuracy-2012.pdf Published version application/pdf 353.20KB 75 Title Measuring the accuracy of self-reported height and weight in a community-based sample of young people Author(s) Bowring, Anna L. Peeters, Anna orcid.org/0000-0003-4340-9132 Freak-Poli, Rosanne Lim, Megan S. C. Gouillou, Maelenn Hellard, Margaret Journal name BMC medical research methodology Volume number 12 Season Article number: 175 Start page 1 End page 8 Total pages 8 Publisher BioMed Central Place of publication London, Eng. Publication date 2012 ISSN 1471-2288 Keyword(s) Adolescent Adult Anthropometry Australia Body Height Body Weight Female Humans Male Obesity Prevalence Reproducibility of Results Residence Characteristics Self Report Surveys and Questionnaires Young Adult Science & Technology Life Sciences & Biomedicine Health Care Sciences & Services Body mass index Overweight Obesity self-report Validity Young people Summary BACKGROUND: Self-reported anthropometric data are commonly used to estimate prevalence of obesity in population and community-based studies. We aim to: 1) Determine whether survey participants are able and willing to self-report height and weight; 2) Assess the accuracy of self-reported compared to measured anthropometric data in a community-based sample of young people. METHODS: Participants (16-29 years) of a behaviour survey, recruited at a Melbourne music festival (January 2011), were asked to self-report height and weight; researchers independently weighed and measured a sub-sample. Body Mass Index was calculated and overweight/obesity classified as ≥25 kg/m². Differences between measured and self-reported values were assessed using paired t-test/Wilcoxon signed ranks test. Accurate report of height and weight were defined as <2 cm and <2 kg difference between self-report and measured values, respectively. Agreement between classification of overweight/obesity by self-report and measured values was assessed using McNemar's test. RESULTS: Of 1405 survey participants, 82% of males and 72% of females self-reported their height and weight. Among 67 participants who were also independently measured, self-reported height and weight were significantly less than measured height (p=0.01) and weight (p<0.01) among females, but no differences were detected among males. Overall, 52% accurately self-reported height, 30% under-reported, and 18% over-reported; 34% accurately self-reported weight, 52% under-reported and 13% over-reported. More females (70%) than males (35%) under-reported weight (p=0.01). Prevalence of overweight/obesity was 33% based on self-report data and 39% based on measured data (p=0.16). CONCLUSIONS: Self-reported measurements may underestimate weight but accurately identified overweight/obesity in the majority of this sample of young people. Language eng DOI 10.1186/1471-2288-12-175 Field of Research 111799 Public Health and Health Services not elsewhere classified 1117 Public Health And Health Services Socio Economic Objective 920499 Public Health (excl. Specific Population Health) not elsewhere classified HERDC Research category C1.1 Refereed article in a scholarly journal ERA Research output type C Journal article Copyright notice ©2012, Bowring et al. Free to Read? Yes Use Rights Persistent URL http://hdl.handle.net/10536/DRO/DU:30081148 Document type: Journal Article Collections: Faculty of Health School of Health and Social Development Open Access Collection Related Links Link Description Connect to published version Go to link with your DU access privileges     Unless expressly stated otherwise, the copyright for items in DRO is owned by the author, with all rights reserved. Every reasonable effort has been made to ensure that permission has been obtained for items included in DRO. If you believe that your rights have been infringed by this repository, please contact drosupport@deakin.edu.au. Versions Version Filter Type Thu, 04 Feb 2016, 13:51:09 EST Fri, 05 Feb 2016, 04:01:19 EST Thu, 17 Mar 2016, 05:09:28 EST Mon, 18 Jul 2016, 15:58:47 EST Tue, 13 Sep 2016, 10:03:28 EST Tue, 13 Sep 2016, 10:05:55 EST Tue, 13 Sep 2016, 10:06:40 EST Mon, 09 Jan 2017, 08:50:35 EST Fri, 07 Sep 2018, 12:16:19 EST Filtered Full Citation counts:   Cited 68 times in TR Web of Science Cited 69 times in Scopus Search Google Scholar Access Statistics: 408 Abstract Views, 76 File Downloads  -  Detailed Statistics Created: Thu, 04 Feb 2016, 13:51:09 EST

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