Dubois Lise, Girad Manon
Department of Epidemiology and Community Medicine, University of Ottawa, Institute at Population Health, 1 Stewart Street, Office 303, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
Int J Epidemiol. 2007 Feb;36(1):132-8. doi: 10.1093/ije/dyl281.
Data is lacking on the reliability of weight and height for young children as reported by parents participating in population-based studies. We analysed the accuracy of parental reports of children's weights and heights as estimates of body mass index, and evaluated the factors associated with the misclassification of overweight and obese children.
Analyses were conducted on a population-based birth cohort of 1549 4-year-old children from the province of Québec (Canada) in 2002. Mothers reported weights and heights for the children as part of the regular annual data collection. Within the following 3 months, children's weights and heights were measured at home as part of a nutrition survey.
This study indicates that mothers overestimate their children's weight more than their height, resulting in an overestimation of overweight children of more than 3% in the studied population. Only 58% of the children were reported as overweight/obese with reported values. Maternal misreporting is more important for boys than girls, and for low socioeconomic status children compared with high socioeconomic status children.
Research on the prevalence of overweight and obesity has often used self-reported measures of height and weight to estimate BMI. However, the results emphasize the importance of collecting measured data in childhood studies of overweight and obesity at the population level.
参与基于人群研究的父母所报告的幼儿体重和身高的可靠性数据尚缺。我们分析了父母报告的儿童体重和身高作为体重指数估计值的准确性，并评估了与超重和肥胖儿童误分类相关的因素。
对2002年来自加拿大魁北克省的1549名4岁儿童的基于人群的出生队列进行了分析。作为年度常规数据收集的一部分，母亲们报告了孩子的体重和身高。在接下来的3个月内，作为营养调查的一部分，在家中测量了儿童的体重和身高。
本研究表明，母亲对孩子体重的高估超过了对身高的高估，导致研究人群中超重儿童的高估超过3%。报告值显示只有58%的儿童被报告为超重/肥胖。母亲的误报对男孩比对女孩更重要，对社会经济地位低的儿童比对社会经济地位高的儿童更重要。
关于超重和肥胖患病率的研究经常使用自我报告的身高和体重测量值来估计BMI。然而，结果强调了在人群水平的超重和肥胖儿童研究中收集测量数据的重要性。
