Faculty of Medical Sciences, University of the West Indies, Cave Hill, Barbados.
The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, United States of America.
PLoS One. 2020 Dec 7;15(12):e0243202. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0243202. eCollection 2020.
Wide participation in electronic surveys and reliable reporting of anthropometry can serve to reduce costs associated with monitoring of obesity among adolescents where resources are limited. We conducted a single school pilot study among Caribbean adolescents to assess use of electronic surveys and whether face to face encouragement could promote enrollment. In addition, we assessed students' ability to reliably report simple anthropometry.
Students were provided with access to an electronic survey on anthropometry and food preferences regarding school-based food offerings. Responses to survey questions were presented as percentages. A sample of students also had their heights and weights measured after reporting these measures from memory. Intra-class correlation coefficients were used to assess reliability among measurers and Bland-Altman plots, consistency between student reported and recorded anthropometric measures and Support Vector Machine to assess robustness of anthropometry prediction models.
Response rate to the electronic survey was low (9%). Students were able to interpret questions; open-ended options were inappropriately used 13% of the time. Post survey qualitative responses indicated displeasure with use of school-associated e-mail addresses. Concerns with confidentiality were expressed as well as preference for completion of surveys during school time. Students reliably reported anthropometry most measures fell within the 95% CI of Bland-Altman plots. SVM classified with a prediction accuracy of 95%. Estimates of overweight from recorded and reported measures were similar.
Adolescents are able to report simple anthropometry, and this can be used to help with monitoring of growth and overweight. Although they are capable of competently completing electronic surveys, school-based email is an ineffective contact tool. In-person school-based contact and administration of surveys are preferred. Adolescents can reliably report simple anthropometry that can be utilized for estimation of overweight/obesity prevalence. This method can be widely applied.
广泛参与电子调查和可靠报告人体测量学可以降低资源有限的情况下监测青少年肥胖相关的成本。我们在加勒比青少年中进行了一项单所学校试点研究，以评估电子调查的使用情况，以及面对面的鼓励是否可以促进参与。此外，我们评估了学生可靠报告简单人体测量学的能力。
学生可以访问关于学校食品供应的人体测量学和食物偏好的电子调查。对调查问题的回答以百分比表示。一部分学生还在回忆后报告这些测量值后，其身高和体重也被测量。使用组内相关系数评估测量者之间的可靠性，Bland-Altman 图评估学生报告和记录的人体测量学测量值之间的一致性，支持向量机评估人体测量学预测模型的稳健性。
电子调查的回复率很低（9%）。学生能够理解问题；开放式选项有 13%的时间使用不当。调查后的定性回复表明对使用与学校相关的电子邮件地址感到不满。还表达了对保密性的关注以及在上课时间完成调查的偏好。学生最可靠地报告人体测量学，大多数测量值都在 Bland-Altman 图的 95%置信区间内。SVM 的分类准确率为 95%。记录和报告的超重估计值相似。
青少年能够报告简单的人体测量学，这可以用于帮助监测生长和超重。尽管他们能够熟练地完成电子调查，但基于学校的电子邮件是一种无效的联系工具。面对面的学校联系和调查管理是首选。青少年可以可靠地报告简单的人体测量学，可用于估计超重/肥胖的流行率。这种方法可以广泛应用。
