OBJECTIVES: analyze self-reported weight and height measurements to diagnose adolescents nutritional state. METHODS: eight hundred and sixty seven adolescents (433 boys and 434 girls) of the municipality of Florianópolis, Santa Catarina aged between 15 and 18 years old (16.2 ± 1.08). Initially the adolescents would report their weight and height; following the respective measurements would be taken by the researchers. The Body Mass Index (BMI) was esta-blished based on the self-reported and taken measurements. RESULTS: when reporting their anthropometric measurements, in average, adolescents would underestimate their weight in 0.5 kg, overestimated their height in 0.42 cm and the BMI based on these measurements were underestimated in 0.3 kg/m.2. Self-reported measurements had high correlation with the measurements taken (intra-class correlation coefficient - ICC - 0.91 to 0.96). Validity rates of BMI determined from the self-reported measurements varied between 60% and 79.1% for sensitivity, 98.4% to 99.2% for specificity, 89.8% and 90% for positive predictive value. Overweight/obesity was underestimated in 2.6% when determined from the self-reported measurements (p = 0.18). CONCLUSIONS: weight and height self-reported measurements are valid as an approximation of the measurements taken and can be used when assessing adolescents nutritional state based on BMI in epidemiological studies.
Overweight; Obesity; Adolescence
