Abstract

UNIKEL-SANTONCINI, Claudia; OCAMPO-ORTEGA, René  and  ZAMBRANO-RUIZ, Joaquín. Exactitude of self-reported weight and height in 15 to 19 year old female adolescents of the State of Mexico. Salud pública Méx [online]. 2009, vol.51, n.3, pp.194-201. ISSN 0036-3634.

OBJECTIVE:To know the accuracy of weight and height in 15 to 19 years old women in relation to age, marginalization and migratory intensity level of localities and father's academic level. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The study was carried out with a probabilistic sample of public high school students at the State of Mexico (N=2 357), to whom self-reported weight and height were asked and were directly measured afterwards. Data were collected from January to April 2007. RESULTS:The results obtained showed that these adolescents overestimate their height not significantly, and significantly underestimate their weight, with similar trends analyzing age, marginalization levels, migratory intensity and father's education status. CONCLUSIONS:Results show the validity of self-reported height but not of self-reported weight among this sample.

Keywords : adolescents; body weight; body height; anthropometric measures; Mexico.

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