Abstract
Objective: To examine the reproducibility of self-reported past body weight for ages 25 and 40 y and effects influencing recall of body weight.
Design and Subjects: Repeated administration of a computer-guided interview including questions on past body weight for 25 and 40 y of age to 120 middle-aged participants of a validation study on dietary assessment methods at the EPIC-Potsdam study centre. Recall error was defined as difference in body weight reported in the second compared to the first interview. Reproducibility of recall of body weight was assessed by plotting the difference between the interviews against the mean of the recalled weight. Possible influences of sex, age, measured current body weight, current body mass index, and highest education attained on recall error were examined.
Results: Mean difference in recalled body weight was small, but variation of differences was considerable. Classification into recall error strata demonstrated reproducibility of weight recall within ±3 kg for 75.8% for weight recall for age 25 y and 81.7% for age 40 y, respectively. Absolute recall error was not influenced by age, sex, current body weight, current BMI, and educational attainment.
Conclusions: We observed a high degree of reproducibility of self-reported past body weight for ages 25 and 40 y between the two interviews administered. With respect to reproducibility administration of a single questionnaire or interview to obtain information on past body weight thus seems to be sufficient.
Sponsorship: Funds for the EPIC-Potsdam study come from the German Ministry of Science and Technology (Grant No. 01EA9401), the European Community with the ’Europe against Cancer’ programme (Grant No. SOC95201408 05F02) and other foundations.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 12 print issues and online access
$259.00 per year
only $21.58 per issue
Rent or buy this article
Prices vary by article type
from$1.95
to$39.95
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
Similar content being viewed by others
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Klipstein-Grobusch, K., Kroke, A. & Boeing, H. Reproducibility of self-reported past body weight. Eur J Clin Nutr 52, 525–528 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.ejcn.1600601
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.ejcn.1600601
Keywords
This article is cited by
-
Body weight in childhood, adolescence, and young adulthood in relation to later risk of disabilities and early retirement among Danish female nurses
International Journal of Obesity (2024)
-
Demographic and sociocultural risk factors for adulthood weight gain in Hispanic/Latinos: results from the Hispanic Community Health Study / Study of Latinos (HCHS/SOL)
BMC Public Health (2021)
-
The association of education with long-term weight change in the EPIC-PANACEA cohort
European Journal of Clinical Nutrition (2012)
-
Anthropometric measures at different ages and endometrial cancer risk
British Journal of Cancer (2011)
-
Association of changes in body mass index during earlier adulthood and later adulthood with circulating obesity biomarker concentrations in middle-aged men and women
Diabetologia (2011)