Indicators of social class: A comparative appraisal of measures for use in epidemiological studies

https://doi.org/10.1016/0277-9536(82)90267-2Get rights and content

Abstract

Various indicators of social class were compared in a community health survey in Jerusalem in order to appraise their value in detecting associations with health characteristics. Correlations among the indicators and between them and selected health-relevant variables were measured. The results suggested that there was little to choose between the occupational scales tested (an adaptation of the British Registrar-General's scale, a prestige scale, and a socio-economic status scale) for use as general indicators of social class in epidemiological studies, as the correlations between them were very high and the patterns of their correlations with the health variables were very similar. Correlations with some health variables became weaker when less detailed occupational data were used.

Other indicators of social class (education, family income, household crowding, an authority rating and an amenities score) were not strongly correlated with occupation, and there were differences in their associations with the health variables, indicating that conclusions about the relationship between health and social class are not insensitive to the measure used. Despite the discrepancies, the patterns of associations with the health measures were broadly similar for occupational scales, education and income, suggesting that if a single measure is to be used there may for some purposes be little to choose between these major indicators.

The fairly low correlations among these different indicators of social class suggest that there may be considerable gains from using more than one measure, so as to increase the chance that an association with social class will be detected, to permit appraisal of independent effects and important interactions between indicators, and to increase the overall explanatory or predictive power of the model. The choice of indicators should be determined by practical considerations and by the conceptual framework with respect to the social-class relationships of the health characteristics under study.

References (26)

  • K. Guggenheim et al.

    Diet, Social class and neighborhood in Jerusalem, Israel

    J. Am. diet. Ass.

    (1964)
  • A. Antonovsky et al.

    Social class and infant mortality

    Soc. Sci. Med.

    (1977)
  • E. Peritz et al.

    Infant mortality in the Jewish population of Israel 1960–1963: a study based on linked birth and death records

    Israel J. med. Sci.

    (1968)
  • H. Palti et al.

    Community diagnosis of psychomotor development in infancy

    Israel Ann. Psychiat.

    (1977)
  • S. Harlap et al.

    A multiple regression analysis of admission of infants to hospital: a report from the Jerusalem Perinatal Study

    Br. J. Prev. Soc. Med.

    (1973)
  • S.L. Kark et al.

    Epidemiological analysis of the hemoglobin picture in parturient women of Jerusalem

    Am. J. publ. Hlth.

    (1964)
  • J.H. Abramson

    Emotional disorder, status inconsistency and migration: a health questionnaire survey in Jerusalem

    Milbank Mem. Fund Q.

    (1966)
  • J.H. Medalie et al.

    Major factors in the development of diabetes mellitus in 10,000 men

    Archs intern. Med.

    (1975)
  • J.H. Abramson et al.

    A case-control study of Hodgkin's disease in Israel

    J. natn. Cancer Inst.

    (1978)
  • J.H. Abramson et al.

    A community health study in Jerusalem: design and response

    Israel J. med. Sci.

    (1979)
  • T.H.C. Stevenson

    Jl R. Stat. Soc.

    (1928)
  • V. Kraus et al.

    Occupational prestige in the collective conscience

    Social Forces

    (1978)
  • V. Kraus

    Social gradings of occupations

  • Cited by (125)

    • REPRINT OF: Racism, Sexism, and Social Class: Implications for Studies of Health, Disease, and Well-being

      2022, American Journal of Preventive Medicine
      Citation Excerpt :

      The few studies that simultaneously employ data on occupation, education, and economic level313,363 are the exception, not the rule. Moreover, despite the importance that Weber accorded to power as the third component of his concept of socioeconomic status, few scales have been developed to measure this attribute explicity,306,309 and none are used in epidemiologic research.302,303,312 Last, even if epidemiologic studies were to use appropriate, multifaceted individual-level and household-level measures of social class, additional evidence indicates that even this range of variables might not explain the effects of social class on health.

    • Geographic disparities in Healthy Eating Index scores (HEI-2005 and 2010) by residential property values: Findings from Seattle Obesity Study (SOS)

      2016, Preventive Medicine
      Citation Excerpt :

      Past studies on net worth have probed for self-reported data liquid assets (Fonda et al., 2004; Hajat et al., 2010; Robert and House, 1996) or car or home ownership (Macintyre et al., 1998, 2003; Sundquist and Johansson, 1997) all obtained by self-report. Higher SES groups are characterized by higher economic standing and greater access to resources and services (Abramson et al., 1982; Berkman and Macintyre, 1997; Braveman et al., 2005; Krieger et al., 1997; Liberatos et al., 1988; Macintyre et al., 1998). These multidimensional constructs may not be fully captured by the standard measures of occupation, education, and income (Braveman et al., 2005; Krieger et al., 1997; Moudon et al., 2011).

    • Impact of ADHD and cannabis use on executive functioning in young adults

      2013, Drug and Alcohol Dependence
      Citation Excerpt :

      Before computing our statistical analyses we compared the 4 groups on demographic and baseline characteristic variables using one-way ANOVAs for the continuous variables and the χ2 test for categorical variables. Associations between the dependent variables and age, gender, IQ, race, alcohol use in the past year, smoking use in the past year, maternal education (proxy for socioeconomic status (Abramson et al., 1982)), and nicotine withdrawal were conducted to determine whether they should be included as covariates. If any covariate was significantly associated (p < .05) with any neuropsychological variable, that covariate was included.

    • Health Disparities, Social Class, and Aging

      2011, Handbook of the Psychology of Aging
    • Researching health inequalities in adolescents: The development of the Health Behaviour in School-Aged Children (HBSC) Family Affluence Scale

      2008, Social Science and Medicine
      Citation Excerpt :

      there should be the potential to create a common set of indicators for future cross-national HBSC surveys. The criteria used were in agreement with the ideas presented by other authors, including Abrahamson, Gofin, Habib, Pridan, and Gofin (1982) and Liberatos, Link, and Kelsey (1988), who were concerned with practical considerations as well as conceptual issues when developing socioeconomic indicators. This paper aims to review the use of FAS as a measure of adolescent socioeconomic circumstances in the context of HBSC and other studies.

    View all citing articles on Scopus
    View full text