Awareness and self-report accuracy of height, weight and waist circumference and their influencing factors among adult residents

Objective To examine the awareness of height,weight and waist circumference (WC),the self-report accuracy of these physical indicators and influencing factors of the awareness and the accuracy among community adults and to provide evidences for evaluating intervention measures and making specific policy.Methods Face-to-face questionnaire survey and anthropometric measurement with standardized methods were carried out among 8 399 residents aged 18 years or over selected with multistage stratified random cluster sampling in Jiangsu province between September and December 2013.Results The awareness rate (95% confidence interval95% CI) of height,weight,and WC were 60.0% (59.0%-61.1%),69.9% (68.9%-70.9%),and 39.0% (37.9%-40.0%),respectively.The differences between self-reported value and measured value were 1.1 (95% CI:1.0-1.2) centimeters for height,-0.1 (-0.2-0.0) kilogram for weight,and -1.5 (-1.7-1.3) centimeters for WC.The results of multivariate logistic regression demonstrated that female residents,the residents living in rural areas,with lower education,and with lower household income were more likely to have lower awareness of these physical indicators.Conclusion Awareness rate and self-report accuracy of height and weight are relatively high whilst those of waist circumference need to be improved;and the awareness rate and self-report accuracy of these physical indicators are influenced mainly by gender,living area,education,and household income among adult residents in Jiangsu province.