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  • Validity of instruction leaflets for parents to measure their child's weight and height at home: results obtained from a randomised controlled trial

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Paediatrics
Research
Validity of instruction leaflets for parents to measure their child's weight and height at home: results obtained from a randomised controlled trial
  1. Inge Huybrechts1,2,
  2. Celine Beirlaen3,
  3. Tineke De Vriendt1,4,
  4. Nadia Slimani2,
  5. Pedro T Pisa2,5,
  6. Elien Schouppe3,
  7. Anja De Coene6,
  8. Dirk De Bacquer1,
  9. Stefaan De Henauw1,7,
  10. John H Himes8
  1. 1Department of Public Health, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium
  2. 2International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC/WHO), Lyon, France
  3. 3KaHo Sint-Lieven, Gebroeders Desmetstraat 1, Ghent, Belgium
  4. 4Research Foundation Flanders, Brussels, Belgium
  5. 5MRC/Wits Developmental Pathways for Health Research Unit, Department of Paediatrics, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa
  6. 6Flemish Community Education, Centre for Pupils Counselling (CLB), Ghent, Belgium
  7. 7Department of Nutrition and Dietetics, University College Ghent, Ghent, Belgium
  8. 8Division of Epidemiology and Community, Health University of Minnesota School of Public Health, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
  1. Correspondence to Professor Inge Huybrechts; inge.huybrechts{at}ugent.be

Abstract

Objectives To compare the validity of parent-reported height, weight and body mass index (BMI) values of children (aged 4–10 years), when measured at home by means of newly developed instruction leaflets in comparison with simple estimated parental reports.

Design Randomised controlled trial with control and intervention group using simple randomisation.

Setting Belgian children and their parents recruited via schools (multistage cluster sampling design).

Participants 164 Belgian children (53% male; participation rate 62%).

Intervention Parents completed a questionnaire including questions about the height and weight of their child. Parents in the intervention group received instruction leaflets to measure their child's weight and height. Classes were randomly allocated to the intervention and control groups. Nurses measured height and weight following standardised procedures up to 2 weeks after parental reports.

Outcome measures Weight, height and BMI category of the child were derived from the index measurements and the parental reports.

Results Mean parent-reported weight was slightly more underestimated in the intervention group than in the control group relative to the index weights. However, for all three parameters (weight, height and BMI), correlations between parental reports and nurse measurements were higher in the intervention group. Sensitivity for underweight and overweight/obesity was respectively, 75% and 60% in the intervention group, and 67% and 43% in the control group. Weighed κ for classifying children in the correct BMI category was 0.30 in the control group and was 0.51 in the intervention group.

Conclusions Although mean parent-reported weight was slightly more underestimated in the intervention than in the control group, correlations were higher and there was considerably less misclassification into valid BMI categories for the intervention group. This pattern suggests that most of the parental deviations from the index measurements were probably due to random errors of measurement and that diagnostic measures could improve by encouraging parents to measure their children's weight and height at home by means of instruction leaflets.

  • Nutrition & Dietetics
  • Paediatrics
  • Preventive Medicine
  • Public Health
  • Statistics & Research Methods

This is an Open Access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 3.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/

https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2013-003768

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