EC Nutrition

The aim of the study was to assess the accuracy of self-reported weight, heightand body mass index in a sample of a Romanian population. A questionnaire containing itemss about socio-demographical data, weight and height was administered to 251 partici- pants and after the respondents were weighed and measured. Significant correlations between self-reported and measured weight (r = .994; p ˂ .001), height (r = .990, p ˂ .001) and body mass index BMI (r = .991, p ˂ .001) were noticed. Mean self-reported weight was lower than the measured one with 0.71 kg, while self-reported height was greater with 0.1 cm, so that self-reported BMI was on average significantly lower than those determined by weighing with 0.20 kg/m2. Weight was under-reported by 20.3% of partici- pants and over-reported by 4.1% of people. A high agreement was noticed between self-reported and measured BMI categories κ Cohen 0,880, p .001. Self-report measures may be a useful tool for estimating the prevalence of overweight and obesity, especially when their measurment is not feasable.

keywords: Self-Reported Weight; Self Reported BMI; Anthropometrics

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