Journal article
Measuring the accuracy of self-reported height and weight in a community-based sample of young people
AL Bowring, A Peeters, R Freak-Poli, MSC Lim, M Gouillou, M Hellard
BMC Medical Research Methodology | BMC | Published : 2012
Abstract
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 ≥25kg/m2. Differences between measure..
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Funding Acknowledgements
MH receives funding from the NH & MRC; AP is supported by a VicHealth fellowship; RFP is supported by an Australian Postgraduate Award and a Monash/BakerIDI Departmental Scholarship; MSCL receives funding from an NH&MRC early career research fellowship. The 2011 survey was funded by the Victorian Department of Health. The authors gratefully acknowledge the contribution to this work of the Victorian Operational Infrastructure Support Program. The authors thank Bianca Fiebeger for allowing us to recruit at the Big Day Out music festival, the trained study recruiters, and the study participants. Showbag contents were donated by the Victorian Department of Justice, Marie Stopes International, Youth Projects, Hepatitis Victoria, Department of Health and Ageing, the Free Condom Project and Cadbury Schweppes.