ArticleJournal of the Royal Society of Medicine2006
Trends in national and state-level obesity in the USA after correction for self-report bias: analysis of health surveys.
Article in Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, 2006. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. An erratum has been issued. Cited by 144 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
144 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 367 citations in OpenAlex.
- Pooled it
- A systematic review of publications assessing reliability and validity of the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS), 2004-2011.BMC medical research methodology · 2013Pooled it
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- Adherence to cancer prevention guidelines and cancer incidence, cancer mortality, and total mortality: a prospective cohort study.The American journal of clinical nutrition · 2015Trial
- Self-reported versus measured height and weight in Hispanic and non-Hispanic menopausal women.Journal of women's health (2002) · 2011Trial
- Article
- Variability of obesity prevalence in US states: are obesity growth or deterioration rates constant for different income quantiles?Frontiers in epidemiology · 2026Article
- Effects from treating moderate- to high-risk obesity patients with anti-obesity medication from a societal perspective.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Interviewer Effects on the Measurement of Physical Performance in a Cross-National Biosocial Survey.Journal of survey statistics and methodology · 2024Article
- Trends in inequalities in childhood overweight and obesity prevalence: a repeat cross-sectional analysis of the Health Survey for England.Archives of disease in childhood · 2024Observational
- Diminishing benefits of urban living for children and adolescents' growth and development.Nature · 2023Article
- Accuracy of predicted adult height using the Greulich-Pyle method and artificial intelligence medical device.Clinical and experimental pediatrics · 2023Article
- Article
- Incidence of obesity across adulthood in the United States, 2001-2017-a national prospective analysis.The American journal of clinical nutrition · 2023Article
- Top-Down Detection of Eating Episodes by Analyzing Large Windows of Wrist Motion Using a Convolutional Neural Network.Bioengineering (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Article
- Article
- Association of sleep, screen time and physical activity with overweight and obesity in Mexico.Eating and weight disorders : EWD · 2021Observational
- Association of Chain Restaurant Advertising Spending With Obesity in US Adults.JAMA network open · 2020Article
- Distress Intolerance in Relation to Reliance on Cigarettes for Weight, Shape, and Appetite Control.International journal of behavioral medicine · 2020Article
- Prevalence and predictors of overweight and obesity in Brazilian immigrants in Massachusetts.BMC public health · 2020Article
84 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
- Commented on by
- Commented on by
- Commented on by
- Erratum issued
Authors and funding
5 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
objectivesTo quantify population-level bias in self-reported weight and height as a function of age, sex, and the mode of self-report, and to estimate unbiased trends in national and state level obesity in the USA.
designStatistical analysis of repeated cross-sectional health examination surveys (the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey [NHANES]) and health surveys (the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System [BRFSS]) in the USA.
settingThe 50 states of the USA and the District of Columbia.
resultsIn the USA, on average, women underreported their weight, but men did not. Young and middle-aged (<65 years) adult men over-reported their height more than women of the same age. In older age groups, over-reporting of height was similar in men and women. Population-level bias in self-reported weight was larger in telephone interviews (BRFSS) than in-person interviews (NHANES). Except in older adults, height was over-reported more often in telephone interviews than in-person interviews. Using corrected weight and height in the year 2000, Mississippi (30%) and Texas (31%) [corrected] had the highest prevalence of obesity for men; Texas (37%), Louisiana (37%), Mississippi (37%), District of Columbia (37%), Alabama (37%), and South Carolina (36%) for women.
conclusionsPopulation-level bias in self-reported weight and height is larger in telephone interviews than in-person interviews. Telephone interviews are a low-cost method for regular, nationally- and sub-nationally representative monitoring of obesity. It is possible to obtain corrected estimates of trends and geographical distributions of obesity from telephone interviews by using systematic analysis which measure weight and height from an independent sample of the same population.
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Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.