Korean J Epidemiol.  1997 Dec;19(2):147-151.

Usefulness of Somatotype Drawing as an Instrument of Recalling Obesity in High School Girls

• Bae JM

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: The obesity is related to the chronic diseases of adults. The measurement of obesity level in adolescence is recommended by using Body Mass Index (BMI), but there is a possiblity of recall bias. S@rensen et al(1983) suggested the usefulness of somatotype drawing in measuring the past weight. The aim is to evaluate the usefulness of somatotype drawing as a instrument of recalling obesity in girls.
METHODS
Study population were second-grade girl students in a high school. The questionnaire survey was done. The somatotype drawing used to assess body build in now, 2-year-ago, 4-year-ago, and 5-year-ago. The BMIs in each period were obtained from 'Annual Health Profile Records'(AHPR).
RESULTS
The means of height now and of weight now were 160.48cm and 54.66kg respectively in the 651 subjects so that the median of BMI now was 20.82. The scores of somatotype drawing increased according to higher BMI in all 4 periods. Spearman's correlation coefficients between score of somatotype drawing and BMI in now, 2-year-ago, 4-year-ago, and 5-year-ago were 0.71, 0.67, 0.65 and 0.63 respectively.
CONCLUSION
The instrument of somatotype drawing might be useful to measure the level of past obesity in girls.

Keyword

Somatotype drawing; Obesity; Body mass index; Correlation; Questionnaire

MeSH Terms

Adolescent
Adult
Bias (Epidemiology)
Body Mass Index
Chronic Disease
Female*
Humans
Obesity*
Somatotypes*
Surveys and Questionnaires