Estimation of percent overweight within families.

When height and weight cannot be directly measured percent overweight can be estimated using self-reported height and weight, reports of others for height and weight, and matching of body shape to silhouettes. The present study assessed the relative benefits of each method for estimating percent overweight within families, as well as the potential for using matching of silhouettes for diagnosing obesity. Analysis of the relationship between percent overweight and silhouette ratings showed increases in percent overweight across the silhouettes. Correlations between self- or other-reported and measured percent overweight showed that self-reports correlated very highly with measured reports of percent overweight (r = .97, .96 for parents and children, respectively), but parent reports of their spouses and children percent overweight were lower (r = .87, .87) and child reports of sibling or parent percent overweight were even lower (r = .75, .75). Significant increases in accuracy of diagnosing obesity were observed when the combination of adjusted self-reports and silhouettes were used in comparison to self-reports alone.