Validity of self-reported height and weight in 4808 EPIC–Oxford participants
Open accessAbstract
Objective: To assess the validity of self-reported height and weight by comparison with measured height and weight in a sample of middle-aged men and women, and to determine the extent of misclassification of body mass index (BMI) arising from differences between self-reported and measured values. Design: Analysis of self-reported and measured height and weight data from participants in the Oxford cohort of the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC–Oxford). Subjects: Four thousand eight hundred and eight British men and women aged 35–76 years. Results: Spearman rank correlations between self-reported and measured height, weight and BMI were high (r<0.9,P>0.0001 ). Height was overestimated by a mean of 1.23 (95% confidence interval (CI) 1.11–1.34) cm in men and 0.60 (0.51–0.70) cm in women; the extent of overestimation was greater in older men and women, shorter men and heavier women. Weight was underestimated by a mean of 1.85 (1.72–1.99) kg in men and 1.40 (1.31–1.49) kg in women; the extent of underestimation was greater in heavier men and women, but did not vary with age or height. Using standard categories of BMI, 22.4% of men and 18.0% of women were classified incorrectly based on self-reported height and weight. After correcting the self-reported values using predictive equations derived from a 10% sample of subjects, misclassification decreased to 15.2% in men and 13.8% in women. Conclusions: Self-reported height and weight data are valid for identifying relationships in epidemiological studies. In analyses where anthropometric factors are the primary variables of interest, measurements in a representative sample of the study population can be used to improve the accuracy of estimates of height, weight and BMI.
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Self-reported height and weight showed good agreement with measured values in a sub-sample of the cohort (correlation coefficient r>0.9).
“There was good agreement between self-reported and measured height and weight from a sub-sample of the cohort (correlation coefficient (r)>0.9).14”
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- Authors
- Spencer, E. A., Appleby, P. N., Davey, G. K., & Key, T. J.
- Affiliations
- University of Oxford (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Spencer, Elizabeth A
- Venue
- Public Health Nutrition
- Publisher
- Cambridge University Press (CUP)
- Published
- 2002-08
- Volume
- 5
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 561-565
- ISSN
- 1368-9800 (ISSN-L)
- 1475-2727
- OpenAlex
- W2010117564
- Cited by
- 1,082
- References
- 12
- Citations by year
- 2026: 12 · 2025: 25 · 2024: 27 · 2023: 36 · 2022: 19 · 2021: 59 · 2020: 42 · 2019: 54 · 2018: 62 · 2017: 50 · 2016: 51 · 2015: 54 · 2014: 65 · 2013: 68 · 2012: 66
- FWCI
- 22.24
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Public Health Nutrition (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- Medical Research Council
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Mathematics › Statistics and Probability › Statistical Methods in Epidemiology
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Physiology › Body Composition Measurement Techniques
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Oncology › Cancer Risks and Factors
- Keywords
- self-reported height, self-reported weight, body mass index, measurement validity, misclassification, anthropometry, middle-aged adults, prediction equations
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Aged, Body Height, Body Weight, England, Female, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Obesity, Prospective Studies, Self Concept, Self Disclosure, Sex Factors, Reproducibility of Results, Cohort Studies, Body Mass Index, Statistics, Nonparametric
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