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Validity of parentally reported versus measured weight, length and waist in 7- to 9-year-old children for use in follow-up studies

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Abstract

The aim of this prospective cohort study was to assess the validity of parentally reported anthropometric data compared to measured data in 7- to 9-year-old Flemish children especially for use in follow-up studies. The subjects were 116 Flemish children of a birth cohort recruited in the first Flemish Environment and Health Study (2002–2003). Data about anthropometric measures (waist circumference (WC), weight and length) were obtained by a postal parentally reported questionnaire and during a home visit. Our study showed that parents tend to overreport their child’s WC and underreport the BMI, especially in children with large WC and high BMI. The median difference between measured and parentally reported WC was 1.6 % of the median measured WC; for BMI, the median difference was 2.8 % of the median measured BMI. Both for WC and BMI, we observed a good agreement between parentally reported values and measured values to classify children in the highest 10 and 20 % of the study population. When classifying the children in ‘overweight’ and ‘not overweight’, there were less misclassifications when parentally reported WC was used compared to parentally reported BMI. Conclusions: Although there is a high agreement between parentally reported and measured WC, the parentally reported data must be used with reserve. Moreover, this study is the first to suggest that WC is a better indicator compared to BMI when parentally reported values are used to classify children.

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Acknowledgment

The studies of the Flemish Center of Expertise on Environment and Health were commissioned, financed and steered by the Ministry of the Flemish Community (Department of Economics, Science and Innovation; Flemish Agency for Care and Health; and Department of Environment, Nature and Energy). Isabelle Sioen is financially supported by the Research Foundation—Flanders (grant no 1.2.683.11.N.00). The study protocol was approved by the Ethical Committee of the University of Antwerp (Belgium) and the Ethical Committee of the University of Ghent (Belgium).

Conflict of interest

The authors have no conflict of interest.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Public Health, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium

    Jolijn Van Cauwenberghe, Immle Delvaux, Nathalie Michels & Isabelle Sioen

  2. Flemish Institute of Technological Research (VITO), Environmental Risk and Health, Mol, Belgium

    Elly Den Hond & Greet Schoeters

  3. Department of Health, Provincial Institute for Hygiene, Antwerp, Belgium

    Vera Nelen

  4. Department of Analytical and Environmental Chemistry, Free University of Brussels, Brussels, Belgium

    Kim Croes

  5. Department of Radiotherapy and Nuclear Medicine, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium

    Nicolas Van Larebeke

  6. FWO Research Foundation, Brussels, Belgium

    Isabelle Sioen

  7. Department of Public Health, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Ghent University, UZ 2 Blok A, De Pintelaan 185, 9000, Ghent, Belgium

    Isabelle Sioen

Authors
  1. Jolijn Van Cauwenberghe
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  2. Immle Delvaux
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  3. Nathalie Michels
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  4. Elly Den Hond
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  5. Greet Schoeters
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  6. Vera Nelen
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  7. Kim Croes
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  8. Nicolas Van Larebeke
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  9. Isabelle Sioen
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Correspondence to Isabelle Sioen.

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Communicated by Peter de Winter

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Van Cauwenberghe, J., Delvaux, I., Michels, N. et al. Validity of parentally reported versus measured weight, length and waist in 7- to 9-year-old children for use in follow-up studies. Eur J Pediatr 173, 921–928 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00431-014-2274-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00431-014-2274-x

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