Overweight and obesity affects a large proportion of the population in the developed world [1]. As the access point for health care systems in countries including Australia, Canada and United Kingdom, general practice is a valuable setting to target the reduction of overweight or obesity. GPs have access to a large proportion of the population, with 81% of Australians aged 15 years and above reporting having consulted their GP at least once a year [2]. Both GPs [3] and patients [4, 5] perceive weight management to be part of a physicians’ role and those who are advised to lose weight by a health care provider are more likely to attempt to lose weight [6].

Self-reported weight and height is commonly used to assess overweight and obesity as it enables the body mass index (BMI) to be calculated. In the general practice setting, self-reported weight and height is often utilised in large-scale monitoring studies, where it may not be feasible to carry out weight and height measurements. For example, the largest ongoing study with general practice patients in Australia (the Bettering the Evaluation and Care of Health (BEACH)) uses self-reported weight and height to provide surveillance data on prevalence of overweight or obesity [7]. While self-report is a relatively cost-effective, practical and less invasive way of obtaining weight and height, this method of assessment is subject to a number of limitations such as bias or poor agreement, which may be a result of social desirability or difficulties with recall [8]. Previous population studies have reported that using self-reported weight and height frequently leads to an underestimation of overweight and obesity when compared to measured values [9, 10]. Most studies examining the accuracy of self-report have however been conducted in the general population [9, 11–13]. In order to utilise self-report for monitoring of overweight or obesity in this setting, the accuracy of self-reported weight and height in general practice patients’ needs to be evaluated.

Simple strategies to improve self-reported weight and height could potentially be useful in helping improve surveillance of excess weight in general practice. One strategy that has been used to improve the reporting of socially undesirable behaviours is the bogus pipeline method [14]. Using this method, respondents are given the impression that the accuracy of their responses will be independently checked. It is underpinned by the assumption that people are more likely to tell the truth when they think that their responses will be verified [15]. Black et al. tested the effectiveness of a variation of this method in improving accuracy of self-reported weight and height in volunteers in a shopping mall [16]. Participants in the intervention group were informed that their weight and height would be measured and then asked to report their weight and height; whilst those in the control group reported their weight and height before being told that they would be measured [16]. Participant in the intervention group reported their weight and height significantly more accurately than those in the control group. Despite its’ potential to improve accuracy of self-reported weight and height, no other study examining this intervention exists, to our knowledge.

This study therefore aimed to test whether advising general practice patients that their height and weight would be measured was effective in improving accuracy of self-report. It also aims to provide an index of reliability and agreement for self-reported weight and height in general practice patients, collected using a touchscreen computer, using mean differences, intraclass correlations (ICC) and Bland Altman plots with 95% limit of agreements (LOAs). The impact of self-report on categorization of underweight, normal weight, overweight and obesity was also assessed using Cohen’s kappa. An additional aim was to determine whether mean difference in reporting of self-reported and measured weight, height and BMI varied by age category.

This study was conducted as part of a larger study testing the acceptability of using a touchscreen computer questionnaire in twelve general practices in Australia [2]. A subsample of patients from three practices was invited to participate in the current study. Consecutive patients aged 18 years and above, presenting for an appointment to their GP and able to provide informed consent were eligible to participate. Patients were not excluded based on the presence of other health conditions. Research staff recorded the sex of all invited patients in order to assess for consent bias. Participants were randomised to the informed or uninformed group and completed a touchscreen computer questionnaire. Participants’ weight and height measurements were obtained after completion of the questionnaire.

Overall, 86% of patients consented to completing the questionnaire for the larger study. 355 patients were asked if they were willing to have their weight and height measured and 93% (n = 332) consented. No significant differences in proportion of males and females who consented to and did not consent to being measured were identified (χ²: 1.1304, df = 1; p = 0.288). There was no significant difference in the proportion who consented to being measured between the informed (93%) and uninformed (92%) group (χ²: 0.9213, df = 1; p = 0.337).

There were no significant differences in mean difference of self-reported and measured weight (p = 0.4004), height (p = 0.5342) and BMI (p = 0.4409) and ICCs between the informed and uninformed group (see Table 1).

When measured and self-reported BMI categories were examined the percentage agreement was 78% for the informed group and 81% for the uninformed group. The kappa values were 0.68 [95% CI 0.58, 0.78] for the informed and 0.72 [95% CI 0.61, 0.83] for the uninformed group and overlap between 95% CIs indicated no significant differences.

The Bland-Altman plots for weight, height and BMI for the informed and uninformed groups are shown in Figures 1, 2 and 3.

As there were no significant differences in accuracy of self-reported weight and height between the groups, the sample was pooled to assess overall agreement and reliability. Overall mean differences between self-reported and measured values were −1.2 kg (4.0) for weight [males −1.2 kg (3.6), females −1.2 kg (4.4)], 0.8 cm (4.4) for height [males 1.5 cm (3.5); females 0.3 cm (4.9)] and −0.6 kg/m² (2.0) for BMI [males −0.9 kg/m² (1.7); females −0.4 kg/m² (2.3)]. The overall ICCs for self-reported and measured values and their corresponding 95% CIs were 0.97 [0.97, 0.98] for weight, 0.91 [0.89, 0.93] for height and 0.94 [0.91, 0.95] for BMI. The Bland Altman plots and LOA provide an indication of the extent of underreporting and overreporting of weight, height and BMI when compared to measured values (see Figures 1, 2, 3).

This study demonstrated that informing general practice patients that their height and weight would be measured did not improve accuracy of self-report. This contrasts with Black and colleagues’ findings, where those who were informed that they would be measured reported their weight and height significantly more accurate than those who were not informed [16]. This difference in findings could have occurred due to several differences in study methodology, setting, participants and statistical analyses conducted. Black and colleagues recruited their sample for a health screen in a shopping mall whereas the current study recruited participants presenting for general practice care. General practice patients may be more willing to disclose their weight and height compared to volunteers in a shopping mall. Further, Black’s study included only participants aged between 18 to 28 years whereas only a small proportion (18%) of our sample was aged between 18 and 29 years [16]. Those in the younger age bracket may be more likely to be affected by cultural ideals regarding weight and height [24], which might have led to attempts to misreport these measures. Inconsistent findings regarding the accuracy of self-reported weight and height in older patients have been identified, with one longitudinal study reporting that only small changes in reporting of weight and height occurred with increasing age [25] and others identifying substantial differences between measured and self-reported weight and height in those older [26, 27]. Our study did not find any significant differences in mean reporting of self-reported and measured values with age category; and no pattern of increasing or decreasing difference with age was observed. Black and colleagues also asked participants in the informed group six additional ‘body weighing questions’ which may have helped with recall of weight [16]. The current study aimed to test solely if informing patients that their weight and height would be measured would improve accuracy of self-report and thus did not include these questions. Given that GPs see a larger proportion of older patients, reporting of weight and height in this group may be less affected by social desirability bias and suggests that misreporting may be attributed largely to recall bias or not having an accurate knowledge of one’s current weight and height. Future studies testing this intervention in younger patients may produce different findings.

Consistent with findings in other populations [8], participants in the present study tended to underreport their weight and overreport their height. Mean differences between self-reported and measured weight (−1.2 kg in males; -1.2 kg in females) and height (1.5 cm in males; 0.3 cm in females) are within the range of that identified in a review examining accuracy of self-reported weight (−1.9 kg to 0.4 kg in males; -1.6 kg to 0.7 kg in females) and height (−1.3 cm to 2.3 cm in males; -1.7 cm to 2.2 cm in females) in the general population [8]. Only one Australian study was included in the review, however this study did not report mean differences. When compared to other Australian studies, our study had lower mean differences in self-reported and measured values for reporting of height and weight, particularly for females. Taylor et al. identified mean differences of −1.5 kg in males; -1.8 kg in females for weight and 1.4 cm in males; 1.3 cm in females for height [12]. Another study identified mean differences of 2.0 cm in males; 0.8 cm in females for height and −1.4 kg for males and −3.0 kg for females [13]. There is some evidence to suggest that females who had recently consulted a doctor may be able to more accurately recall their weight and height [28]. Additionally, patients presenting for care to their GP may represent a more ‘health conscious’ sample and thus, may be more aware of their weight and height measurements. Differences could also be attributed to the fact there was no time lag between self-report and measured assessments in our study, whereas an average of 23.5 days between self-reported and measured data was reported in the study conducted by Taylor [12].

Overall, 80% of participants were accurately classified as underweight, normal weight, overweight or obese using self-reported weight and height. The use of self-reported BMI resulted in no difference in prevalence of overweight and only a 5% lower prevalence of obesity when compared to estimates obtained using measured data. These findings are favourable when compared to other studies which indicate that self-reported data underestimated the proportion of participants classified as overweight by 2% to 12% and obese by approximately 7% [12, 13]. The present findings however, are comparable to the 2008 Australian National Health Survey, which identified a 6% rate of underestimation of prevalence of overweight or obese when self-reported data was compared to measured data [10].

While the current study identified high reliability between self-reported and measured weight and height, represented by high ICCs (>0.9) for weight, height and BMI, the estimated Bland Altman LOAs suggests that accuracy of individuals’ self-report may vary. When compared to measured weight, inaccuracies in self-reported weight ranged from overestimation of 6.7 kg to underestimation of 9.1 kg. Similarly, inaccuracies in self-reported height ranged from an overestimation of 8.6 cm to underestimation of 7.1 cm. This subsequently led to overreporting of BMI by 3.3 kg/m² and underreporting of up to 4.6 kg/m².

Informing general practice patients that their weight and height would be measured did not significantly improve accuracy of self-report. Testing this strategy in subgroups likely to be affected by cultural ideals regarding weight (i.e. younger, female) may be beneficial in helping identify ways to improve accuracy of self-report for these groups. Self-reported weight and height provides relatively accurate estimates of BMI in Australian general practice patients. Thus, in circumstances where population trends are of interest such as in large surveillance studies, self-report is likely to be an accurate alternative. While the average bias of self-reported weight and height as estimates of the measured quantities is small, the LOAs indicate that there is a need for these values to be interpreted with caution in individuals.