• William T Dalton, Liang Wang, Jodi L Southerland, Karen E Schetzina, and Deborah L Slawson.
• From the Department of Psychology, College of Arts and Sciences, the Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology and the Department of Community and Behavioral Health, College of Public Health, and the Department of Pediatrics, Quillen College of Medicine, East Tennessee State University, Johnson City.
• South. Med. J. 2014 Jun 1; 107 (6): 348-55.

ObjectivesThe purpose of the study was to examine potential differences between two approaches to defining adolescent weight misperception. Specifically, weight status perception was compared with self-reported weight status and actual weight status (based on body mass index percentiles calculated from self-reported and actual weights and heights, respectively). Furthermore, the accuracy of assigning weight status based on body mass index percentiles calculated from self-reported weights and heights was assessed by comparing them with actual weight status.MethodsData were extracted from Team Up for Healthy Living, an 8-week, school-based obesity prevention program in southern Appalachia. Participants (N = 1509) were predominately white (93.4%) and ninth graders (89.5%), with approximately equivalent representation of both sexes (50.7% boys).ResultsThe study revealed significant differences between the approaches to defining weight misperception (χ(2) = 16.2; P = 0.0003).ConclusionsResearchers should interpret study findings with awareness of potential differences based on the method of calculating weight misperception.

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