A modernity score for individuals in Melanesian society

Assessment of individual modernity has considerable implications for the prevention of non-communicable disease in high-risk populations experiencing rapid modernization. A scoring system for the classification of the relative modernity of individuals in Melanesian society is described. The score consisted of eight components relating to area of origin, employment, length of employment, father's employment, education, years spent in an urban centre, housing and an increment determined by the score of the spouse of the individual. The score was used in surveys of non-communicable disease in Papua New Guinea in 1985 and was validated, in one of the three communities studied, by the independent assessment of two local informants. With the use of analysis of variance and linear regression, the score was shown to be associated with obesity in both sexes. An association was also shown with age by both techniques in females. In males, age and glucose tolerance were associated with the score when using analysis of variance, but not when applying linear regression. Only three components, father's employment, education and the spouse increment proved useful when the score was used as the dependent variable in the linear regression equation. The utility of the other components may have been constrained by the narrow distribution of their scores in the populations studied.