OBJECTIVE: To examine the validity of self-reported weight and height and the resulting body mass index (BMI), and to explore the associations between demographic, socioeconomic, and health-related factors on the one hand and bias in self-reported weight and height on the other, in order to determine the groups most likely to exhibit bias. DESIGN: Prospective cohort study. SUBJECTS: 7350 middle-aged subjects, 5445 men and 1905 women, from the GAZEL cohort, who have been followed up since 1989 and work at the French national company Electricite  De France ± Gaz De France (EDF-GDF) in various occupations. MEASUREMENTS: Self-reported weight and height were based on information from yearly mailed questionnaires, and measured weight and height, used here as true values, were provided by occupational physicians from 1994 to 1997. Sex, age, marital status, education, occupation, history of ischemic heart disease, and treatment for cardiovascular risk factors were obtained from the mailed questionnaires or from data provided by the Company's personnel and medical departments. RESULTS: Strong correlations were found between measured and self-reported values, but self-reported weight and height displayed signi®cant systematic errors. Weight was signi®cantly underestimated for men (0.54 kg) and for women (0.85 kg), and height overestimated for men (0.38 cm) and women (0.40 cm). These biases led to signi®cant underestimations of BMI (0.29 and 0.44 kgam 2 for men and women respectively). Consequently, the prevalence of overweight, de®ned as BMI b 26.9 kgam 2 for women and BMI b 27.2 kgam 2 for men, was also underestimated, by 13% for men and 17% for women. The ®ve factors associated with bias in self-reported weight and height were: overweight status, end-digit preference, age, educational level and occupation. CONCLUSION: These ®ndings suggest that self-reported weight and height should be treated with caution, because of biases leading to misclassi®cation for overweight and obesity, especially in certain segments of the population.
BackgroundAdverse psychosocial working environments characterized by job strain (the combination of high demands and low control at work) are associated with an increased risk of depressive symptoms among employees, but evidence on clinically diagnosed depression is scarce. We examined job strain as a risk factor for clinical depression.MethodWe identified published cohort studies from a systematic literature search in PubMed and PsycNET and obtained 14 cohort studies with unpublished individual-level data from the Individual-Participant-Data Meta-analysis in Working Populations (IPD-Work) Consortium. Summary estimates of the association were obtained using random-effects models. Individual-level data analyses were based on a pre-published study protocol.ResultsWe included six published studies with a total of 27 461 individuals and 914 incident cases of clinical depression. From unpublished datasets we included 120 221 individuals and 982 first episodes of hospital-treated clinical depression. Job strain was associated with an increased risk of clinical depression in both published [relative risk (RR) = 1.77, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.47–2.13] and unpublished datasets (RR = 1.27, 95% CI 1.04–1.55). Further individual participant analyses showed a similar association across sociodemographic subgroups and after excluding individuals with baseline somatic disease. The association was unchanged when excluding individuals with baseline depressive symptoms (RR = 1.25, 95% CI 0.94–1.65), but attenuated on adjustment for a continuous depressive symptoms score (RR = 1.03, 95% CI 0.81–1.32).ConclusionsJob strain may precipitate clinical depression among employees. Future intervention studies should test whether job strain is a modifiable risk factor for depression.
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