A tool for rapid socioeconomic assessment

Area of Science:

• Pediatric Health
• Socioeconomic Determinants of Health
• Public Health Research

Background:

• Socioeconomic status (SES) is a critical determinant of child health outcomes.
• Existing scales like the Kuppuswamy (KUP) scale have limitations in administration and bias.
• A validated, simple tool for SES assessment is needed in pediatric research.

Purpose of the Study:

• To validate a novel 8-item Wealth Index Scale (WIS) for assessing socioeconomic status.
• To compare the performance of the WIS against the established Kuppuswamy (KUP) scale.
• To evaluate the utility of the WIS as a practical tool for pediatric studies.

Main Methods:

• A cross-sectional study involving 300 children (6-59 months) with acute diarrhea.
• Socioeconomic status was assessed using both the 8-item WIS and the KUP scale.
• Both scales were validated against a reference Income Scale (IS).

Main Results:

• The WIS identified 17% of low-income individuals, while KUP identified 21%.
• For upper-low income, WIS identified 69.4% and KUP identified 84.3%.
• WIS demonstrated robust performance across all income categories, with 55.56% agreement with KUP.

Conclusions:

• The 8-item WIS is a robust and user-friendly alternative to the KUP scale.
• WIS is suitable for all income groups and shows good agreement with KUP.
• WIS offers a practical solution for SES assessment in pediatric settings, overcoming KUP's administrative challenges.