ArticleBMC medical research methodology2012
Measuring the accuracy of self-reported height and weight in a community-based sample of young people.
Article in BMC medical research methodology, 2012. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 77 papers.
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Who cites it
77 citing papers in PubMed, 151 citations in OpenAlex.
- Randomised Controlled Trial of a Customised Text Messaging and Activity Monitor Program for Lifestyle Improvement after Gestational Diabetes.Nutrients · 2024Trial
- Validation of remote height and weight assessment in a rural randomized clinical trial.BMC medical research methodology · 2022Trial
- Prevalence of Overweight and Obesity among Libyan Men and Women.BioMed research international · 2019Trial
- An Australian general practice based strategy to improve chronic disease prevention, and its impact on patient reported outcomes: evaluation of the preventive evidence into practice cluster randomised controlled trial.BMC health services research · 2017Trial
- Validation of self-reported weights and heights in the avoiding diabetes after pregnancy trial (ADAPT).BMC medical research methodology · 2014Trial
- Junk Food Consumption Trends, Patterns, and Awareness of Its Health Risks Among University Students in Bangladesh: A Cross-Sectional Study.Health science reports · 2026Article
- The accuracy of self-reported height, weight and BMI in a sample of emerging adult college students across California: an observational study.BMC medical research methodology · 2026Observational
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- Relationship between Height Preferences and Endorsement of Gender Norms.Human nature (Hawthorne, N.Y.) · 2025Article
- The Role of Doctor Visits, Body Image Discrepancy, and Perceived Health in Predicting Medical Weight Problem Diagnosis.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Acceptability of self-completion versus face-to-face use of a vertebral fragility fracture clinical decision tool for use in older people with back pain in the UK.Archives of osteoporosis · 2025Article
- Article
- Recording practices of body mass index, overweight and obesity by Dutch general practitioners: an observational study.BMC primary care · 2025Observational
- Body Image Perception, Eating Habits, and Nutritional Status of Female University Students: A Case of Makerere University, Uganda.Journal of nutrition and metabolism · 2025Article
- Design and methods of the StepByStep randomized trial of a mobile health and social media physical activity intervention among adolescent and young adult survivors of childhood cancer: A report from the Children's Oncology Group.Contemporary clinical trials · 2024Article
- Expert Consensus Statement on an Updated Definition of Unintended Weight Loss Among Persons With Human Immunodeficiency Virus in the Modern Treatment Era.Clinical infectious diseases : an official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America · 2024Review
- Validation of remote child weight and height measurements within a weight management trial.Obesity (Silver Spring, Md.) · 2024Article
- General somatic health and lifestyle habits in individuals with obsessive- compulsive disorder: an international survey.BMC psychiatry · 2024Article
- Validity of self-reported weight and height among female young adults in the United Arab Emirates.PloS one · 2024Article
- Agreement between parent-report and EMR height, weight, and BMI among rural children.Frontiers in nutrition · 2024Article
17 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundSelf-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.
methodsParticipants (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.
resultsOf 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).
conclusionsSelf-reported measurements may underestimate weight but accurately identified overweight/obesity in the majority of this sample of young people.
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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.