Self-reported versus measured height and weight in the health and retirement study.

The global obesity epidemic has posed a major threat to population health.1 Given that weight change and obesity have been linked with health outcomes, physical functioning, and quality of life,2, 3 accurate population surveillance data on the trend of weight change and obesity has remained important for public health efforts to combat the obesity epidemic. In large‐scale population‐based studies, self‐reported height and weight have been used to derive body mass index (BMI) for classifying obesity categories.2-5 Despite the cost savings and the general high correlation between self‐reported and measured height and weight, important differences may have continued to exist in the estimated obesity prevalence, but the most recent study on the reporting accuracy of height, weight, and BMI measures used data from 1988 to 1994 from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.6 Therefore, the concordance between self‐reported versus measured height, weight, and BMI was assessed using the 2006 data from a nationally representative sample of U.S. adults.

Body Mass Index/height/reporting errors/Obesity/Demographics/health Status

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