Abstract
BackgroundPrevious studies have examined correlations between BMI calculated using parent-reported and directly-measured child height and weight. The objective of this study was to validate correction factors for parent-reported child measurements.MethodsConcordance between parent-reported and investigator measured child height, weight, and BMI (kg/m2) among participants in the Neighborhood Impact on Kids Study (n = 616) was examined using the Lin coefficient, where a value of ±1.0 indicates perfect concordance and a value of zero denotes non-concordance. A correction model for parent-reported height, weight, and BMI based on commonly collected demographic information was developed using 75% of the sample. This model was used to estimate corrected measures for the remaining 25% of the sample and measured concordance between correct parent-reported and investigator-measured values. Accuracy of corrected values in classifying children as overweight/obese was assessed by sensitivity and specificity.ResultsConcordance between parent-reported and measured height, weight and BMI was low (0.007, − 0.039, and − 0.005 respectively). Concordance in the corrected test samples improved to 0.752 for height, 0.616 for weight, and 0.227 for BMI. Sensitivity of corrected parent-reported measures for predicting overweight and obesity among children in the test sample decreased from 42.8 to 25.6% while specificity improved from 79.5 to 88.6%.ConclusionsCorrection factors improved concordance for height and weight but did not improve the sensitivity of parent-reported measures for measuring child overweight and obesity. Future research should be conducted using larger and more nationally-representative samples that allow researchers to fully explore demographic variance in correction coefficients.
Highlights
Previous studies have examined correlations between body mass index (BMI) calculated using parent-reported and directlymeasured child height and weight
Parents overestimated weight for 6–9 year olds (5.4 lb., 95% CI: 3.2, 7.6) and underestimated weight of 10–12 year olds (− 12.7 lb., 95% CI: −15.8, − 9.8)
There were no significant differences between child BMI using parent-reported versus investigator-measured height and weight
Summary
Previous studies have examined correlations between BMI calculated using parent-reported and directlymeasured child height and weight. A correction model for parent-reported height, weight, and BMI based on commonly collected demographic information was developed using 75% of the sample. A review by O’Connor and Gugenheim estimated that parent-reported height and weight had sensitivity for identifying children with obesity ranging from 22 to 79% and specificity ranging from 93 to 98% [10]. One could speculate that parent reports of child height and weight can be biased by other factors such as presence of other children in the household and continued growth over time, making it even more challenging to derive a correction factor for this young population
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