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Updated: Mar 19, 2026
Assessment of Child Anthropometry in a Large Epidemiologic Study
Published on: February 2, 2017
[Validity of anthropometric measurements and weight perceptions reported by relatives of children under 4 years old]
Begoña Patiño-Villena1, María Dolores Chirlaque2, Diego Salmerón2
1Servicios Municipales de Salud, Ayuntamiento de Murcia, Murcia, España.
Insights
Parent-reported data for young children
Area of Science:
- Pediatric Nutrition
- Public Health Research
- Childhood Obesity Studies
Background:
- Accurate anthropometric data is crucial for assessing child growth and identifying overweight prevalence.
- Parental reporting of children's weight and height is often used in large-scale studies, but its validity is questionable.
- Understanding parental perception of child weight status is important for public health interventions.
Purpose of the Study:
- To evaluate the accuracy of parental self-reported weight and height measurements in children under 4 years old.
- To compare the prevalence of overweight children based on parental reports versus objective measurements.
- To assess the concordance between parental perception of their child's weight status and actual measurements.
Main Methods:
- A cross-sectional study involving parents of children aged 3-45 months.
- Collected anthropometric data via self-report questionnaires (home environment) and compared it to gold standard pediatric check-up data.
- Utilized World Health Organization (WHO) growth standards for analysis.
Main Results:
- Parental reports significantly underestimated height, leading to an overestimation of weight-for-height and BMI-for-age.
- Overweight prevalence was 18.6% based on check-ups, versus 26.5% based on parental reports (Kappa: 0.47).
- Parental subjective perception of overweight status showed low sensitivity (30%) but high specificity (93%).
Conclusions:
- Parental self-reported anthropometric data has limited validity for population-based studies due to systematic underestimation of height.
- Parental perception of children's weight status is often inaccurate, highlighting a need for improved awareness and education.
- Validated questionnaires and enhanced family awareness are essential for reliable childhood obesity surveillance.
Objective:
To assess the validity of weight and height measurements reported by parents and the perception of their children's weight status in order to assess the prevalence of overweight children under 4 years old.
Methods:
Cross-sectional study. Anthropometric data was collected by self-report questionnaires completed by parents of children 3-45 months old: 1) information from paediatric check-ups (gold standard); 2) information reported from the home environment; and 3) data from individual perceptions. WHO standards were used.
Results:
Reported height was underestimated, thus reported weight/height and BMI/age were overestimated. Overweight prevalence according to paediatric check-ups was 18.6%, compared to 26.5% reported prevalence, showing a moderate concordance (Kappa: 0.47 [0.34-0.60]), 70% sensitivity and 84% specificity. Subjective perception was 11.2%, representing 30% sensitivity and 93% specificity.
Conclusions:
The reported information has little validity for population-based studies, as height is underestimated and overweight status is not correctly perceived due to distortion of individual perception. Questionnaires must be validated and awareness raised among families.
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