Can secondary school students self-reported measures of height and weight be trusted?
Tsigilis N Department of Physical Education and Sports, University of Thessaly, Greece. tsigilis@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 (eta2)
