Abstract
This study examined whether 1) the immigrant Mexican Americans reported weight and height differently from the non-immigrant Mexican Americans and, 2) self-reporting errors influenced weight classification. A U.S. national sample of 3085 Mexican Americans from the third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey was used to investigate validity using paired t-tests, multiple linear regressions, sensitivity and specificity. While immigrant Mexican American women reported their weight and height higher than non-immigrant women, no significant differences were found between immigrant and non-immigrant Mexican American men. Sensitivity and specificity of weight classification with self-reported weight and height were not different between immigrant and non-immigrant Mexican Americans; however, underweight Mexican Americans showed the lowest sensitivity. Therefore, self-reported weight and height can be used for the purpose of weight classification with immigrant and non-immigrant Mexican Americans, with an exception of underweight Mexican Americans.
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Lee, SK. Validity of Self-Reported Weight and Height: Comparison Between Immigrant and Non-Immigrant Mexican Americans in NHANES III. J Immigrant Health 7, 127–131 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10903-005-2646-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10903-005-2646-4