The European Journal of Public Health Advance Access published online on November 23, 2006
The European Journal of Public Health, doi:10.1093/eurpub/ckl253
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1 Institute for Risk Assessment Sciences (IRAS), Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands
* To whom correspondence should be addressed. Background: In adults, body weight tends to be underestimated when based on self-reported data. Whether this discrepancy between measured and reported data exists in healthy young children is unclear. We studied whether parental reported body weight and height of 4-year-old children corresponded with measured body weight and height. In addition, we studied the determinants and the consequences of differences between reported and measured data. Methods: Data on body weight and height of 864 4-year-old Dutch children born in 1996/1997 enrolled in the Prevention and Incidence of Asthma and Mite Allergy (PIAMA) birth cohort study were collected via a questionnaire and a medical examination. Overweight was defined according to standard international age and gender specific definitions. Results: Mean differences between measured and reported body weight, height, and body mass index (BMI) were small. Parents of children with a low BMI tended to over report body weight while parents of children with a high BMI tended to underreport body weight. Whereas 9.5% of the children were overweight according to reported BMI, the prevalence of overweight was 13.4% based on measured BMI. Over 45% of the overweight children according to measured BMI were missed when reported BMI was used. Conclusion: These findings suggest that overweight prevalence rates in children are underestimated when based on reported weight and height.
Received June 29, 2006
Accepted October 10, 2006
Article
Reported versus measured body weight and height of 4-year-old children and the prevalence of overweight
Salome Scholtens 1 *, Bert Brunekreef 2, Tommy L. S. Visscher 3, Henriette A. Smit 4, Marjan Kerkhof 5, Johan C. de Jongste 6, Jorrit Gerritsen 7, and Alet H. Wijga 4
2 Institute for Risk Assessment Sciences (IRAS), Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands; Julius Center for Health Sciences and Primary Care, University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht, The Netherlands
3 Center for Prevention and Health Services Research, National Institute for Public Health and the Environment, Bilthoven, The Netherlands; Institute for Health Sciences, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
4 Center for Prevention and Health Services Research, National Institute for Public Health and the Environment, Bilthoven, The Netherlands
5 Department of Epidemiology and Bioinformatics, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands
6 Department of Pediatrics, Division of Respiratory Medicine, Erasmus MC--Sophia, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
7 Beatrix Children's Hospital, University Medical Centre Groningen, University of Groningen, The Netherlands
Salome Scholtens, E-mail: salome.scholtens{at}rivm.nl
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