PHYSICIANS DIAGNOSIS OF OBESITY STATUS IN NHANES-II

The aim of this work was to assess the accuracy of physicians' subject ive assessments of obesity status. The subjects were participants in T he Second National Health and Nutrition Examination (NHANES II) Survey . The physicians' subjective judgments of obesity were compared to BMI , an objective measure of actual body mass. Subjects with a body mass index (BMI = weight in kg/(height in cm/100)(2)) less than or equal to 27.5 were classified as normal weight and those with a BMI greater th an or equal to 30.4 were considered to be obese. Physicians were accur ate in their diagnosis of the normal weight group with only 4.03% bein g misdiagnosed as obese. However, 12.6% of the obese group was misdiag nosed as normal weight. The odds of an incorrect normal weight diagnos is increased with age. Similarly, as the fat distribution ratio increa sed, i.e., a more central pattern, the odds of being actually obese bu t incorrectly diagnosed as normal weight increased. Men were more like ly than women to be incorrectly diagnosed as normal weight. Non-Caucas ian normal weight persons appear to have been diagnosed more stringent ly than Caucasians as they were more likely to be misdiagnosed as obes e regardless of their gender. There appear to be several variables aff ecting the physicians' subjective assessment of obesity status in this data set.