The DOI matches its Crossref record; 76 of the 80 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
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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MethodPrince, S. A., Kristjansson, E., Russell, K., Billette, J., Sawada, M. C., Ali, A. M., Tremblay, M. S., & Prud’homme, D. (2012) · Obesity · doi:10.1038/oby.2011.392 · Cited by 69
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BackgroundSelf-citationcollaborators, O. B. O. T. M. W. S., Wright, F., Green, J., REEVES, G. K., Beral, V., & Cairns, B. J. (2015) · BMC Medical Research Methodology · doi:10.1186/s12874-015-0075-1 · Cited by 69
“Most other studies found a slight overreporting of height and slight to moderate underreporting of weight, BMI, waist and hip circumference, and strong to very strong correlations between selfreported and measured values, consistent with our findings [1–9].”
BackgroundResultPilot study in the view of a Pan‐European dietary survey – adolescents, adults and elderly
Ámbrus, Á., Bagó-Horváth, Z., Farkas, Z., Dorogházi, E., Cseh, J., Petrova, S., Dimitrov, P., Duleva, V. L., Rangelova, L. S., Chikova‐Iscener, E., et al. (2013) · EFSA Supporting Publications · doi:10.2903/sp.efsa.2013.en-508 · Cited by 72
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When ignorance is bliss: weight perception, body mass index and quality of life in adolescents
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Public Opinion About Laws to Prohibit Weight Discrimination in the United States
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“Individuals do tend to under-estimate their BMI in self-reports [28]; however, because we examined BMI as a continuous variable this under-estimation should not influence the statistical estimate of this relationship on longitudinal course.”
BackgroundAre Obesity and Physical Activity Clustered? A Spatial Analysis Linked to Residential Density
Schuurman, N., Peters, P. A., & Oliver, L. (2009) · Obesity · doi:10.1038/oby.2009.119 · Cited by 72
“Women and men tend to under-report weight and over-report height, making BMI measurements derived from surveys subject to a potential skew downward (48).”
BackgroundMaternal body mass index and post‐term birth: a systematic review and meta‐analysis
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“The use of self-reported BMI among obese BMI groups is a frequent methodological criticism (74), yet had little influence in our meta-regression analyses.”
MethodUpdating the Canadian Obesity Maps: An Epidemic in Progress
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“A potential limitation was the use of self-reported heights and weights at baseline, but these have consistently been shown to be reliable with relatively small mean errors (Gorber et al, 2007).”
BackgroundPredictors of Breastfeeding in Overweight and Obese Women: Data From Active Mothers Postpartum (AMP)
Krause, K. M., Lovelady, C. A., & Østbye, T. (2010) · Maternal and Child Health Journal · doi:10.1007/s10995-010-0667-7 · Cited by 66
“These measures were highly correlated in our sample, however, and since weight tends to be under-reported generally [35] and particularly by overweight persons [36–38], a measured weight is preferred when available.”
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“Finally, it should be noted that, according to a recent review comparing self-reported and measured data [39], it is possible that the magnitude of the underestimation of BMI values using selfreported data decreases with time, albeit the available data come from different studies conducted in different countries.”
ResultObesity and Sexual Dysfunction in Younger Danish Men
Andersen, I., Heitmann, B. L., & Wagner, G. (2008) · The Journal of Sexual Medicine · doi:10.1111/j.1743-6109.2008.00920.x · Cited by 67
Obesity and All-Cause Mortality Among Black Adults and White Adults
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“underreported (31), data from the 1999 to 2004 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey show that, despite errors in self-report, BMI categories based on selfreported values still generally demonstrate good agreement with BMI categories from measured values (32).”
BackgroundAccuracy of self-reported weight in the Women’s Health Initiative
Luo, J., Thomson, C. A., HENDRYX, M. S., Tinker, L. F., Manson, J. E., Li, Y., Nelson, D. A., Vitolins, M. Z., Seguin‐Fowler, R. A., Eaton, C. B., et al. (2018) · Public Health Nutrition · doi:10.1017/s1368980018003002 · Cited by 67
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Overweight and obesity among adults in Germany - Results from GEDA 2019/2020-EHIS
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Association of obesity with cardiovascular disease mortality in the PLCO trial
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“BMI was calculated from self-reported height and weight and could be affected by imprecise measurements and misclassification (Chiolero et al., 2007; Connor Gorber et al., 2007), although correlations between self-reported and measured weight and height are generally high (Spencer et al., 2002; Stewart, 1982).”
BackgroundObesity in Switzerland: do estimates depend on how body mass index has been assessed?
Faeh, D., Marques-Vidal, P. M., Chioléro, A., & Bopp, M. (2008) · Swiss Medical Weekly · doi:10.4414/smw.2008.12065 · Cited by 65
Correction of self-reported BMI based on objective measurements: a Belgian experience
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“Social desirability can largely explain this phenomenon and some subpopulation groups (women, youngsters and high educated people) are more prone to it [6, 7, 13, 15, 16, 18, 22].”
BackgroundSainsbury, K., Evans, E. H., Pedersen, S., Marques, M. M., Teixeira, P. J., Lähteenmäki, L., Stubbs, R. J., Heitmann, B. L., & Sniehotta, F. F. (2019) · Eating and Weight Disorders - Studies on Anorexia Bulimia and Obesity · doi:10.1007/s40519-018-0487-0 · Cited by 64
“Self-reporting of weight and height are prone to bias [45] and this may, therefore, have over- or under-estimated the rates of successful WLM and affected the associations between BMI, weight regain, and other target variables.”
Großschädl, F., Haditsch, B., & Stronegger, W. J. (2011) · Public Health Nutrition · doi:10.1017/s1368980011001911 · Cited by 64
Parent and child reports of children's activity.
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Gestational weight gain and obesity: is 20 pounds too much?
Kominiarek, M. A., Seligman, N. S., Dolin, C. D., Gao, W., Berghella, V., Hoffman, M., & Hibbard, J. U. (2013) · American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology · doi:10.1016/j.ajog.2013.04.035 · Cited by 67
Mitchison, D., Morin, A. J. S., Mond, J., Slewa‐Younan, S., & Hay, P. (2015) · PLoS ONE · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0120591 · Cited by 64
“In comparison to objective anthropometric measurements, self-reported height and weight tend to be slightly less reliable [29], but nonetheless remain the most common method used in large postal community surveys, such as in the present study.”
MethodResultDo body-related shame and guilt mediate the association between weight status and self-esteem?
Pila, E., Sabiston, C. M., Brunet, J., Castonguay, A. L., & O’Loughlin, J. L. (2015) · Journal of Health Psychology · doi:10.1177/1359105315573449 · Cited by 63
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BackgroundWard, Z. J., Long, M. W., Resch, S., Gortmaker, S. L., Cradock, A. L. I., Giles, C. M., Hsiao, A., & Wang, Y. C. (2016) · PLoS ONE · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0150735 · Cited by 64
“Bias in self-reported body measures is well-documented [6], and results in underestimates of body mass index (BMI, kg/m(2)).”
BackgroundEffects of measurement on obesity and morbidity.
Shields, M. E., Gorber, S. C., & Tremblay, M. S. (2008) · PubMed · Cited by 63
Self-citationBerry, T. R., Spence, J. C., Blanchard, C. M., Cutumisu, N., Edwards, J., & Selfridge, G. (2010) · International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity · doi:10.1186/1479-5868-7-57 · Cited by 63
“Given that people tend to under report their actual weight [44], self-reported BMI usually provides an under representation of overweight and obesity at a population level.”
BackgroundEffects of BMI on the risk and frequency of AIS 3+ injuries in motor‐vehicle crashes
Rupp, J. D., Flannagan, C. A. C., Leslie, A., Hoff, C. N., Reed, M. P., & Cunningham, R. M. (2013) · Obesity · doi:10.1002/oby.20079 · Cited by 63
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BackgroundLevine, M. D., Bush, T. M., Magnusson, B., Cheng, Y., & Chen, X. (2012) · Nicotine & Tobacco Research · doi:10.1093/ntr/nts226 · Cited by 63
Dietary restraint and weight loss as risk factors for eating pathology
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“A buffer can be a circle based on the straight-line distance or a polygon created along a given street network based on the shortest-path distance (Frank et al. 2005; Cohen et al. 2006; Norman et al. 2006; Berke et al. 2007; Guo and Bhat 2007; Moudon et al. 2007; Oliver, Schuurman, and Hall 2007).”
BackgroundBeing an Only or Last-Born Child Increases Later Risk of Obesity
Haugaard, L. K., Ajslev, T. A., Zimmermann, E., Ängquist, L. H., & Sørensen, T. I. A. (2013) · PLoS ONE · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0056357 · Cited by 61
“On the other hand, using BMI at age 13 years makes it possible to avoid self-reported weight and height, which is known to be uncertain [28].”
BackgroundMethodMaternal Body Composition, Smoking, and Hyperemesis Gravidarum
Vikanes, Å. V., Grjibovski, A. M., Vangen, S., Gunnes, N., Samuelsen, S. O., & Magnus, P. M. (2010) · Annals of Epidemiology · doi:10.1016/j.annepidem.2010.05.009 · Cited by 62
“The authors of previous studies have shown that selfreported weight tends to be slightly underestimated and height overestimated, resulting in underestimation of BMI (26).”
BackgroundWorkout at work: Laboratory test of psychological and performance outcomes of active workstations.
Sliter, M. T., & Yuan, Z. (2014) · Journal of Occupational Health Psychology · doi:10.1037/a0038175 · Cited by 63
The ANIBES Study on Energy Balance in Spain: Design, Protocol and Methodology
Ruiz, E., Ávila, J. M. B., Castillo, A., Valero, T., de la Calle, S. D. P., Rodríguez-Alonso, P., Bartrina, J. A., Gil, Á., González‐Gross, M., Anta, R. M. O., et al. (2015) · Nutrients · doi:10.3390/nu7020970 · Cited by 70
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“Our obesity prevalence rates are based on self-reported height and weight favouring underestimation of individual BMI (45).”
BackgroundInfluentialUsing kernel density estimation to understand the influence of neighbourhood destinations on BMI
King, T. L., Bentley, R., Thornton, L. E., & Kavanagh, A. M. (2016) · BMJ Open · doi:10.1136/bmjopen-2015-008878 · Cited by 61
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Rosella, L. C., Corey, P., Stukel, T. A., Mustard, C., Hux, J. E., & Manuel, D. G. (2012) · Population Health Metrics · doi:10.1186/1478-7954-10-20 · Cited by 60
“This study focused on the overall trend of self-reporting error seen in several validation studies, that is an underestimation of weight and an overestimation of height (13); however these patterns may also vary across subpopulations such as gender and socioeconomic status.”
Flegal, K. M., Graubard, B. I., & Ioannidis, J. P. A. (2019) · International Journal of Obesity · doi:10.1038/s41366-019-0499-5 · Cited by 59
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“…modifications were extensive, the adaptability limitations of the Downs and Black Checklist have been reduced through similar modifications in several previous studies (e.g. Gorber et al., 2007; Feij ´ o et al., 2019) including systematic reviews of experimental studies (e.g. Groeber et al., 2019).”
MethodPomeroy, E., Wells, J. C. K., Cole, T. J., O'Callaghan, M. J., & Stock, J. T. (2014) · American Journal of Physical Anthropology · doi:10.1002/ajpa.22680 · Cited by 61
“…both maternal height and BMI with birthweight than paternal height are consistent with previous studies (Kramer, 1987; Morrison et al., 1991; To et al., 1998; Knight et al., 2005; Leary et al., 2006; Griffiths et al., 2007; Veena et al., 2009; Albouy-Llaty et al., 2011; Kuzawa and Eisenberg, 2012).”
ResultBody weight and height data in electronic medical records of children
Smith, N., Coleman, K. J., Lawrence, J. M., Quinn, V. P., Getahun, D. T., Reynolds, K., Chen, W., Porter, A. H., Jacobsen, S. J., & Koebnick, C. (2009) · International Journal of Pediatric Obesity · doi:10.3109/17477160903268308 · Cited by 60
Salt intakes and salt reduction initiatives in Southeast Asia: a review.
Batcagan-Abueg, A. P. M., Lee, J. J. M., Chan, P., Rebello, S. A., & Amarra, M. S. (2013) · PubMed · doi:10.6133/apjcn.2013.22.4.04 · Cited by 61
“Quality assessment of literature using a modified Downs and Black Checklist The Downs and Black Checklist is recommended for use in reviews of non-randomised studies.(25) Since not all items in the Downs and Black Checklist were applicable for this particular review, a modified version called the Modified Downs and Bl…”
MethodHunger and associated harms among injection drug users in an urban Canadian setting
Anema, A., Wood, E., Weiser, S. D., Qi, J., Montaner, J. S. G., & Kerr, T. H. (2010) · Substance Abuse Treatment Prevention and Policy · doi:10.1186/1747-597x-5-20 · Cited by 60
“Self-reports of nutritional information often vary by gender and beliefs of social desirability [33].”
White, M. A., Masheb, R. M., & Grilo, C. M. (2009) · Obesity · doi:10.1038/oby.2009.347 · Cited by 60
“When errors in self-report occur, they tend to be in the direction of underreporting weight and overreporting height (3), and there is evidence of various forms of systematic biases.”
BackgroundObesity estimates for children based on parent-reported versus direct measures.
Shields, M. E., Gorber, S. C., Janssen, I., & Tremblay, M. S. (2011) · PubMed · Cited by 60
Self-citationWhitaker, K. M., Wilcox, S., Liu, J., Blair, S. N., & Pate, R. R. (2016) · Maternal and Child Health Journal · doi:10.1007/s10995-016-2054-5 · Cited by 60
“While underreporting of weight has been previously cited in the literature, particularly among non-pregnant overweight and obese women [8], self-reported weight is the most commonly used measure of pre-pregnancy weight.”
BackgroundGestational diabetes mellitus and interpregnancy weight change: A population-based cohort study
Sørbye, L. M., Skjærven, R., Klungsøyr, K., & Morken, N. (2017) · PLoS Medicine · doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.1002367 · Cited by 64
Ong, J., An, J., Law, M. H., Whiteman, D. C., Neale, R. Ε., Gharahkhani, P., & MacGregor, S. (2018) · British Journal of Cancer · doi:10.1038/s41416-018-0063-4 · Cited by 59
Temporal changes in bias of body mass index scores based on self-reported height and weight
Stommel, M., & Osier, N. D. (2012) · International Journal of Obesity · doi:10.1038/ijo.2012.67 · Cited by 59
Developing Suitable Methods of Nutritional Status Assessment: A Continuous Challenge
Elmadfa, I., & Meyer, A. L. (2014) · Advances in Nutrition · doi:10.3945/an.113.005330 · Cited by 61
“Thus, data measured under standardized conditions should be given as much preference as possible (5).”
BackgroundIncome Disparities in Obesity Trends Among California Adolescents
Babey, S. H., Hastert, T. A., Wolstein, J., & Diamant, A. L. (2010) · American Journal of Public Health · doi:10.2105/ajph.2010.192641 · Cited by 66
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“Additionally, the fact that the information about weight and height (needed for BMI calculation) was based on self-reports may have yielded an underestimation of BMI in the study sample [67].”
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“Because of this, the International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics (FIGO) emphasizes the need to control preconceptional bodyweight and BMI to prevent abnormal values that can impact significantly on maternal and neonatal health outcomes (3).”
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“Although a validation study indicated high correlation between self-reported and measured anthropometric variables (12), weight tends to be underreported, particularly among obese women (17), and therefore obesity rates may have been underestimated in the present study.”
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ResultChiriță-Emandi, A., Barbu, C. G., Cinteză, E. E., Chesaru, B. I., Gafencu, M., Mocanu, V., Pascanu, I. M., Tatar, S. A., Bălgrădean, M., Dobre, M., et al. (2016) · Obesity Facts · doi:10.1159/000444173 · Cited by 56
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“Body mass index (BMI) was derived from selfreported height and weight, adjusted for self-report bias (Gorber et al., 2007), and grand-mean-centred.”
MethodActive Transportation and Adolescents’ Health
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“For self-reported weight and height, older individuals tend to overestimate their height and underestimate their weight, which may lead to minimize BMI and undervalue individuals who would be classified as obese [54].”
Obesity and risk of infections: results from men and women in the Swedish National March Cohort
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Body talk, athletic identity, and eating disorder symptoms in men.
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Baseball pitching biomechanics in relation to pain, injury, and surgery: A systematic review.
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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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