Measuring Child Socio-Economic Position in Birth Cohort Research: The Development of a Novel Standardized Household...

Area of Science:

• Epidemiology
• Public Health
• Social Sciences

Background:

• Socioeconomic position (SEP) is crucial for addressing health inequalities.
• Maternal education is frequently used as the sole SEP indicator in birth cohort research.
• Household income, a key material resource indicator, is underutilized due to measurement challenges.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a standardized, cross-cohort comparable income indicator: the Equivalized Household Income Indicator (EHII).
• To assess the EHII's validity and its association with child body mass index (BMI).

Main Methods:

• Constructed the EHII using external EU Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EUSILC) data and cohort-specific information.
• Applied the method to four European birth cohorts (Piccolipiù, NINFEA, ELFE, EDEN).
• Compared EHII distribution with other SEP variables and analyzed its association with child BMI.

Main Results:

• Parental and household characteristics effectively predict household income.
• EHII strongly correlates with self-reported income and other socioeconomic variables.
• A significant inverse association was found between EHII and child BMI.

Conclusions:

• The EHII provides a standardized and comparable measure of household income for birth cohort studies.
• This indicator can enhance research on social inequalities in health, particularly in European collaborative studies.
• EHII facilitates a more robust understanding of socioeconomic factors influencing child health.