Validity of maternal report on birth weight 11 years after delivery: the 1993 Pelotas Birth Cohort Study, Rio Grande do Sul State, Brazil

birth weight has short and long-term effects on health. some studies have used retrospective data on birth weight, reported by the subject or by the parents. this paper compares data on birth weight measured by the research team in 1993 with birth weight reported by the mother in 2004-2005, using data from the 1993 pelotas birth cohort study, rio grande do sul state, brazil. we also evaluate the role of misclassification when exploring the effect of birth weight on a given outcome. mean difference between the two variables was 20g (sd = 288.3). agreement for detecting low birth weight was 95.2% in the sample as a whole (kappa = 0.73), but was lower among low-schooling mothers. mothers of children weighing less than 3,500g at birth tended to overestimate the child's birth weight. inversely, mothers of heavier children tended to underestimate the values. one out of four mothers reported a difference of at least 200g in birth weight as compared to that measured in 1993. use of reported birth weight diluted the magnitude of the association with body mass index at 11 years in comparison with measured birth weight. reported birth weight should be used with great caution, if at all.