title: Social desirability bias in self-reported dietary, physical activity and weight concerns measures in 8- to 10-year-old African-American girls: results from the Girls Health Enrichment Multisite Studies (GEMS).
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Social desirability (SocD) may bias children's self-reported health behaviors and attitudes and confound relationships with health outcome measures.
  
  
  METHODS
  Ninety-five, 8- to 10-year-old African-American girls completed dietary recalls, a physical activity checklist, psychosocial questionnaires related to diet, and physical activity; and 3 days of physical activity monitoring. Potential SocD construct bias was investigated by comparing designated criterion measures of physical activity, beverage intake, and body mass index (BMI) with respective self-reported measures related to activity, beverage preferences, and body image and weight concerns in cross-sectional regression models. Potential confounding by SocD of associations between self-reported behaviors with BMI was assessed using change-in-coefficient regression analyses.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Controlling for age and BMI, overestimates of self-reported activity (P = 0.02), underestimates of sweetened beverage preferences (P = 0.02), and lower ratings of weight concerns and dieting behaviors (P's < 0.05) were related to SocD. Confounding by SocD of associations between self-reported physical activity and energy intake with BMI was found.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In 8- to 10-year-old African-American girls, SocD was found to bias self-reports of diet and physical activity and confound associations between BMI and self-reported physical activity and energy intake. Methods to measure and control SocD bias are needed to reduce potential distortion of relationships between diet and physical activity and health outcomes.
authors.affiliation: Department of Preventive Medicine, University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Memphis, 38163, USA. lklesges@utmem.edu
authors.forename: Lisa M
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Klesges
authors.forename: Tom
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Baranowski
authors.forename: Bettina
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Beech
authors.forename: Karen
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Cullen
authors.forename: David M
authors.initials: DM
authors.lastname: Murray
authors.forename: Jim
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Rochon
authors.forename: Charlotte
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Pratt
mesh_terms: D001741:Black or African American / Q000523:psychology; D015982:Bias; D002648:Child; D015986:Confounding Factors, Epidemiologic; D015444:Exercise / Q000523:psychology*; D005247:Feeding Behavior / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015337:Multicenter Studies as Topic / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D009765:Obesity / Q000517:prevention & control* / Q000523:psychology; D016032:Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012928:Social Desirability; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014481:United States