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A comparison of direct vs. self‐report measures for assessing height, weight and body mass index: a systematic review
Abstract
Summary: Obesity is a rapidly increasing public health problem, with surveillance most often based on self‐reported values of height and weight. We conducted a systematic review to determine what empirical evidence exists regarding the agreement between objective (measured) and subjective (reported) measures in assessing height, weight and body mass index (BMI). Five electronic databases were searched to identify observational and experimental studies on adult populations over the age of 18. Searching identified 64 citations that met the eligibility criteria and examined the relationship between self‐reported and directly measured height or weight. Overall, the data show trends of under‐reporting for weight and BMI and over‐reporting for height, although the degree of the trend varies for men and women and the characteristics of the population being examined. Standard deviations were large indicating that there is a great deal of individual variability in reporting of results. Combining the results quantitatively was not possible because of the poor reporting of outcomes of interest. Accurate estimation of these variables is important as data from population studies such as those included in this review are often used to generate regional and national estimates of overweight and obesity and are in turn used by decision makers to allocate resources and set priorities in health.
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“Self-reported measures of height and weight are often used to estimate BMI, as obtaining directly measured anthropometric data for all individuals can be impractical and costly, particularly in large-scale studies.(1)”
BackgroundMethodResultInfluentialPai, M. P. (2012) · Pharmacotherapy The Journal of Human Pharmacology and Drug Therapy · doi:10.1002/j.1875-9114.2012.01108.x · Cited by 199
“The exact estimates of this change will vary based on the data source (self-reported, measured), but the trends are indisputable.(23) This increase in weight with limited increase in height corresponds to the From the Department of Pharmacy Practice, Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, Albany, New York.”
BackgroundWeight stigma in maternity care: women’s experiences and care providers’ attitudes
Mulherin, K., Miller, Y. D., Barlow, F. K., Diedrichs, P. C., & Thompson, R. (2013) · BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth · doi:10.1186/1471-2393-13-19 · Cited by 193
“In their systematic review, Gorber, Tremblay, Moher and Gorber [42] found that participants within all weight categories tend to overestimate height and underestimate weight and BMI in self-report, and there is some evidence to suggest that those who are obese under-estimate weight and over-estimate height by greater…”
BackgroundFrederick, D. A., & Essayli, J. H. (2016) · Psychology of Men & Masculinity · doi:10.1037/men0000031 · Cited by 218
Krul, A. J., Daanen, H. A. M., & Choi, H. J. (2010) · European Journal of Public Health · doi:10.1093/eurpub/ckp228 · Cited by 190
The Geography of Fast Food Outlets: A Review
Fraser, L., Edwards, K. L., Cade, J. E., & Clarke, G. (2010) · International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health · doi:10.3390/ijerph7052290 · Cited by 189
“Self reported weights are known to be prone to bias [50] but this would usually be underreporting of weight which would be unlikely to account for these findings.”
ResultSelf-Reported vs. Measured Height, Weight, and BMI in Young Adults
Olfert, M. D., Barr, M. L., Charlier, C. M., Famodu, O. A., Zhou, W., Mathews, A., Byrd‐Bredbenner, C., & Colby, S. E. (2018) · International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health · doi:10.3390/ijerph15102216 · Cited by 189
Harvesting more than vegetables: the potential weight control benefits of community gardening
Zick, C. D., Smith, K. R., Kowaleski-Jones, L., Uno, C., & Merrill, B. J. (2013) · American Journal of Public Health · doi:10.2105/ajph.2012.301009 · Cited by 184
Obesity and Migraine: The Effect of Age, Gender and Adipose Tissue Distribution
Peterlin, B. L., Rosso, A. L., Rapoport, A. M., & Scher, I. (2009) · Headache The Journal of Head and Face Pain · doi:10.1111/j.1526-4610.2009.01459.x · Cited by 186
“Multiple studies in various disorders have shown that BMI is commonly underestimated when self-reported as compared with when it is measured, including in migraineurs.(10-13) This measurement error might obscure the true relationship between migraine and obesity if it is differential.”
BackgroundResultMaternal and Paternal Controlling Feeding Practices: Reliability and Relationships With BMI
Haycraft, E., & Blissett, J. M. (2008) · Obesity · doi:10.1038/oby.2008.238 · Cited by 185
Flint, E., Cummins, S., & Sacker, A. (2014) · BMJ · doi:10.1136/bmj.g4887 · Cited by 185
Lifestyle choices and mental health: a representative population survey
Velten, J., Lavallee, K. L., Scholten, S., Meyer, A. H., Zhang, X.-C., Schneider, S., & Margraf, J. (2014) · BMC Psychology · doi:10.1186/s40359-014-0055-y · Cited by 174
“For this group a slight underestimation of weight has been reported (Gorber et al. 2007).”
BackgroundJackson, S. S., Marks, M. A., Katki, H. A., Cook, M. B., Hyun, N., Freedman, N. D., Kahle, L., Castle, P. E., Graubard, B. I., & Chaturvedi, A. K. (2022) · Cancer · doi:10.1002/cncr.34390 · Cited by 184
Trends in Quality-Adjusted Life-Years Lost Contributed by Smoking and Obesity
Jia, H., & Lubetkin, E. I. (2010) · American Journal of Preventive Medicine · doi:10.1016/j.amepre.2009.09.043 · Cited by 192
Lieshout, R. J. V., Taylor, V. H., & Boyle, M. H. (2011) · Obesity Reviews · doi:10.1111/j.1467-789x.2010.00850.x · Cited by 178
“In general, when self-reported, height tends to be overestimated and weight and BMI underestimated compared with direct measurement (43).”
BackgroundAkinbami, L. J., & Ogden, C. L. (2009) · Obesity · doi:10.1038/oby.2009.1 · Cited by 179
Thrift, A. P., Shaheen, N. J., Gammon, M. D., Bernstein, L., Reid, B. J., Onstad, L., Risch, H. A., Liu, G., Bird, N. C., Wu, A. H., et al. (2014) · JNCI Journal of the National Cancer Institute · doi:10.1093/jnci/dju252 · Cited by 179
“Secondly, conventional analyses are based on the participant’s BMI at one time point and thus may be subject to misclassification and reporting errors (eg, tall men under-report height and short men over-report height, and women under-report weight) (38,39).”
BackgroundWhere Perception Meets Reality: Self-Perception of Weight in Overweight Adolescents
Edwards, N. M., Pettingell, S. L., & Borowsky, I. W. (2010) · PEDIATRICS · doi:10.1542/peds.2009-0185 · Cited by 178
Jaime, P. C., Duran, A. C., Sarti, F. M., & Lock, K. (2011) · Journal of Urban Health · doi:10.1007/s11524-010-9537-2 · Cited by 170
“Data on height and weight were self-reported, which have been widely used in epidemiological studies.(21) Use of self-reported height and weight on telephone surveys has been previously validated for Brazilian adults.”
Burton, N. W., Brown, W. J., & Dobson, A. J. (2010) · Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health · doi:10.1111/j.1753-6405.2010.00618.x · Cited by 176
“50 kg.(1,2) The difference between BMI derived from self-reported data and measured data (0.”
BackgroundBMI, Diet and Female Reproductive Factors as Risks for Thyroid Cancer: A Systematic Review
Peterson, E., De, P., & Nuttall, R. K. (2012) · PLoS ONE · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0029177 · Cited by 174
“A systematic review comparing selfreported height and weight to actual measurements found that people tended to underestimate their weight and overestimate their height leading to an underestimation of BMI [44].”
BackgroundObesity Prevalence in the United States — Up, Down, or Sideways?
Yanovski, S. Z., & Yanovski, J. A. (2011) · New England Journal of Medicine · doi:10.1056/nejmp1009229 · Cited by 173
Brauer, P. M., Gorber, S. C., Shaw, E. A., Singh, H., Bell, N. R., Shane, A., Jaramillo, A., Tonelli, M. A., & Canadian Task Force on Preventive Health Care (2015) · Canadian Medical Association Journal · doi:10.1503/cmaj.140887 · Cited by 176
Self-citationFerraro, Z. M., Barrowman, N. J., Prud’homme, D., WALKER, M. C., Wen, S. W., Rodger, M. A., & Adamo, K. B. (2011) · The Journal of Maternal-Fetal & Neonatal Medicine · doi:10.3109/14767058.2011.638953 · Cited by 177
“It is well understood that individuals under-report body weight when compared to direct measures [33] although maternal recall of pregnancy-related events tends to be more reproducible and valid [34].”
BackgroundWilliams, R. L., Alexander, G., Armstrong, I. J., Baker, A., Bhala, N. B., Camps-Walsh, G., Cramp, M., de Lusignan, S., Day, N., Dhawan, A. K., et al. (2017) · The Lancet · doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(17)32866-0 · Cited by 168
“39 Comparable data on childhood obesity from across the UK are scarce, with Scotland and Northern Ireland using a different definition of obesity in their official statistics to that used by England and Wales.”
MethodMerten, C., Ferrari, P., Bakker, M. I., Boss, A., Hearty, À. P., Leclercq, C., Lindtner, O., Tlustos, C., Verger, P., Volatier, J., et al. (2011) · Food Additives & Contaminants Part A · doi:10.1080/19440049.2011.576440 · Cited by 172
“An extensive review from Gorber et al. (2007), evaluating the relationship between self-reported and directly measured height and weight, showed trends of under-reporting for weight (ranging from 0.1 to 6.5 kg in women and from 0.1 to 3.2 kg in men) and over-reporting for height (ranging from 0.6…”
BackgroundInfluential
Metadata
- Authors
- Gorber, S. C., Tremblay, M., Moher, D., & Gorber, B.
- Affiliations
- Statistics Canada (CA)
- University of Ottawa (CA)
- Corresponding author
- Gorber, S. Connor
- Venue
- Obesity Reviews
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2007-01-26
- Volume
- 8
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 307-326
- ISSN
- 1467-7881 (ISSN-L)
- 1467-789X
- OpenAlex
- W2011137594
- Cited by
- 1,945
- References
- 80
- Citations by year
- 2026: 40 · 2025: 58 · 2024: 80 · 2023: 69 · 2022: 77 · 2021: 98 · 2020: 104 · 2019: 113 · 2018: 114 · 2017: 127 · 2016: 142 · 2015: 135 · 2014: 145 · 2013: 172 · 2012: 127
- FWCI
- 11.89
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Obesity Reviews (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Obesity, Physical Activity, Diet
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Physiology (medical) › Body Composition Measurement Techniques
- Social Sciences › Decision Sciences › Statistics, Probability and Uncertainty › Reliability and Agreement in Measurement
- Keywords
- self-reported height, self-reported weight, body mass index, obesity surveillance, measurement agreement, adults
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Body Height, Body Weight, Body Weights and Measures, Female, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Obesity, Self Disclosure, Reproducibility of Results, Body Mass Index, Sex Distribution
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