MEASURES OF SOCIOECONOMIC-STATUS FOR CHILD HEALTH RESEARCH - COMPARATIVE RESULTS FROM BANGLADESH AND PAKISTAN

This paper examines the reliability and validity of several hypothesiz ed indicators of socio-economic status for use in epidemiologic resear ch, particularly in studies of child health in the less developed worl d. Population-based surveys of child health and disability were comple ted in Bangladesh and Pakistan using standard questionnaires designed to measure four domains of household socioeconomic status: wealth, hou sing, parental education and occupation. Test-retest data indicate mod erate to excellent reliability of most of the socioeconomic indicators in both countries. Loadings from factor analyses of the survey data p rovide further evidence of the reliability of the data, and confirm th at the questionnaire measures housing and wealth as distinct domains i n both countries. Parental education and occupation are correlated wit h housing and/or wealth in these data sets. Bivariate logistic regress ion analyses show that, although 11 of 12 dichotomous indicators of lo w socioeconomic status constructed from the data are predictive of chi ld death in at least one of the four sub-populations studied (rural an d urban Bangladesh, and rural and urban areas of Karachi, Pakistan), n o single indicator is predictive of child death in all four sub-popula tions. These along with multivariate results demonstrate the importanc e of including multiple measures of distinct domains if the research a ims include investigation and/or control of the effects of socioeconom ic status on health in diverse populations.