Adolescents' Characteristics Associated with Item Nonresponse on BMI Questions

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to examine respondent characteristics in relationship to item nonresponse on height and weight questions among South Korean adolescents. Methods: This was a secondary analysis of data collected from the 2013 Korean Youth Risk Behavior Web-based Survey. Results: The results indicated that item nonresponse on height and weight questions was associated with respondents' characteristics, especially, family affluence, academic performance, smoking, meal skipping, suicide ideation, subjective health status, and subjective happiness. Conclusions: For studies that do not take into account adolescents who have missing values for body mass index, the findings must be interpreted with caution because the characteristic of adolescents not reporting their height and/or weight differ significantly from those of adolescents reporting their height and weight.