Skip Navigation


The European Journal of Public Health Advance Access originally published online on April 6, 2006
The European Journal of Public Health 2006 16(5):532-535; doi:10.1093/eurpub/ckl050
This Article
Right arrow Full Text Freely available
Right arrow FREE Full Text (PDF) Freely available
Right arrow All Versions of this Article:
16/5/532    most recent
ckl050v1
Right arrow E-letters: Submit a response
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me when E-letters are posted
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in ISI Web of Science
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow Search for citing articles in:
ISI Web of Science (2)
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Tsigilis, N.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Tsigilis, N.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

© The Author 2006. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the European Public Health Association. All rights reserved.

Overweight and obesity

Can secondary school students' self-reported measures of height and weight be trusted? An effect size approach

Nikolaos Tsigilis

Department of Physical Education and Sports, University of Thessaly, Greece

Correspondence: Nikolaos Tsigilis, Ph.D., Department of Physical Education and Sport Science, University of Thessaly, Karies, 42100 Trikala, Greece, tel: +304310 47062, fax: +304310 47042, e-mail: tsigilis{at}uom.gr

Background: Self-reported measures of height and weight are a cost-effective alternative to direct measures in large-scale studies. This study was designed to examine the accuracy of adolescent students' self-reported height and weight taking into consideration the magnitude of the differences. Methods: Self-reported height and weight were taken from 300 secondary public schools students. Participants' actual height and weight were subsequently verified. Body mass index (BMI; kg/m2) was calculated separately from reported and from actual measures. Adolescents' whose measured BMI was above the 85th percentile were characterized as ‘at risk for overweight/obese’. Results: There was no gender effect on the discrepancy between reported and actual measures. Overall adolescents significantly underestimated their weight and BMI. Although correlation coefficients were high, eta-square ({eta}2) values indicate large bias for weight (0.36) and BMI (0.31). ‘At risk for overweight/obese’ individuals underestimated their weight and BMI to a greater extent than their ‘normal weight’ counterparts. Conclusions: The magnitude of the discrepancies call into question the accuracy of self-reported weight and consequently the estimated BMI. Correlation coefficients did not provide any valuable information about the discrepancy between the self-reported and actual measures. A better understanding of the validity of self-reported height and weight could be reached if interpretation of the results is based on both statistical significance and magnitude of the differences.

Keywords: adolescents, body mass index, Greece, reproducibility of results


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?




Disclaimer: Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.