August 23, 2005
Men Tell Tall Tales On Height
Study Finds More Men Than Women Overstate Their Height
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(AP / CBS)
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Interactive Diet And Nutrition Are you eating right? See the government's guidelines, calculate your body mass index and quiz yourself on healthy food choices.
Blame Metric System?
Why might full-grown adults misstate their height? Does it reflect self-esteem, genuine confusion, or something else? The study doesn't settle that, but it notes a possible reason.
Most participants gave their height in feet and inches, rounding it off to the nearest half inch. The researchers then switched those numbers to the nearest 0.1 centimeter and compared them with parents' actual height.
"Clearly, this discrepancy between units of measurement may account for some of the difference between measured and reported height," write the researchers.
Source: Cizmecioglu, F. Archives of Disease in Childhood, September 2005; vol 90: pp 941-942.
By Miranda Hitti
Reviewed by Michael W. Smith, MD
© 2005, WebMD Inc. All rights reserved.
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