Self-reported and measured BMI in Ireland: should we adjust the obesity thresholds?

David Madden ()

No 201301, Working Papers from School of Economics, University College Dublin

Abstract: Using the nationally representative Slan dataset of 2007 we analyse the relationship between self-reported and measured BMI. We find that self-reported BMI significantly underestimates obesity rates and suggest that the traditional threshold of 30 should be adjusted downwards. We outline a number of approaches to choose the optimal threshold and results suggest that the new obesity threshold for self-reported BMI could be as low as 26.

Keywords: Body mass index; Receiver operating characteristic; Sensitivity; Specificity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013-02
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hea
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http://hdl.handle.net/10197/4238 First version, 2013 (application/pdf)

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