dc.contributor.author | Psaki, Stephanie R. | en_US |
dc.contributor.author | Seidman, Jessica C. | en_US |
dc.contributor.author | Miller, Mark | en_US |
dc.contributor.author | Gottlieb, Michael | en_US |
dc.contributor.author | Bhutta, Zulfiqar A. | en_US |
dc.contributor.author | Ahmed, Tahmeed | en_US |
dc.contributor.author | Ahmed, A.M. Shamsir | en_US |
dc.contributor.author | Bessong, Pascal | en_US |
dc.contributor.author | John, Sushil M. | en_US |
dc.contributor.author | Kang, Gagandeep | en_US |
dc.contributor.author | Kosek, Margaret | en_US |
dc.contributor.author | Lima, Aldo | en_US |
dc.contributor.author | Shrestha, Prakash | en_US |
dc.contributor.author | Svensen, Erling | en_US |
dc.contributor.author | Checkley, William | en_US |
dc.date.accessioned | 2016-01-15T09:21:32Z | |
dc.date.available | 2016-01-15T09:21:32Z | |
dc.date.issued | 2014-03-21 | |
dc.Published | Population Health Metrics 2014, 12:8 | eng |
dc.identifier.issn | 1478-7954 | |
dc.identifier.uri | https://hdl.handle.net/1956/10963 | |
dc.description.abstract | Background: There is no standardized approach to comparing socioeconomic status (SES) across multiple sites in epidemiological studies. This is particularly problematic when cross-country comparisons are of interest. We sought to develop a simple measure of SES that would perform well across diverse, resource-limited settings. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted with 800 children aged 24 to 60 months across eight resource-limited settings. Parents were asked to respond to a household SES questionnaire, and the height of each child was measured. A statistical analysis was done in two phases. First, the best approach for selecting and weighting household assets as a proxy for wealth was identified. We compared four approaches to measuring wealth: maternal education, principal components analysis, Multidimensional Poverty Index, and a novel variable selection approach based on the use of random forests. Second, the selected wealth measure was combined with other relevant variables to form a more complete measure of household SES. We used child height-for-age Z-score (HAZ) as the outcome of interest. Results: Mean age of study children was 41 months, 52% were boys, and 42% were stunted. Using cross-validation, we found that random forests yielded the lowest prediction error when selecting assets as a measure of household wealth. The final SES index included access to improved water and sanitation, eight selected assets, maternal education, and household income (the WAMI index). A 25% difference in the WAMI index was positively associated with a difference of 0.38 standard deviations in HAZ (95% CI 0.22 to 0.55). Conclusions: Statistical learning methods such as random forests provide an alternative to principal components analysis in the development of SES scores. Results from this multicountry study demonstrate the validity of a simplified SES index. With further validation, this simplified index may provide a standard approach for SES adjustment across resource-limited settings. | en_US |
dc.language.iso | eng | eng |
dc.publisher | BioMed Central | eng |
dc.rights | Attribution CC BY 2.0 | eng |
dc.rights.uri | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0 | eng |
dc.subject | Socioeconomic status | eng |
dc.subject | Child growth | eng |
dc.subject | Classification | eng |
dc.subject | Measurement | eng |
dc.title | Measuring socioeconomic status in multicountry studies: Results from the eight-country MAL-ED study | en_US |
dc.type | Peer reviewed | |
dc.type | Journal article | |
dc.date.updated | 2015-11-25T12:37:29Z | |
dc.description.version | publishedVersion | en_US |
dc.rights.holder | Copyright Psaki et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2014 | |
dc.identifier.doi | https://doi.org/10.1186/1478-7954-12-8 | |
dc.identifier.cristin | 1161965 | |
dc.subject.nsi | VDP::Medisinske fag: 700::Helsefag: 800::Epidemiologi medisinsk og odontologisk statistikk: 803 | |
dc.subject.nsi | VDP::Midical sciences: 700::Health sciences: 800::Epidemiology, medical and dental statistics: 803 | |
dc.subject.nsi | VDP::Medisinske fag: 700::Helsefag: 800::Samfunnsmedisin, sosialmedisin: 801 | |
dc.subject.nsi | VDP::Midical sciences: 700::Health sciences: 800::Community medicine, social medicine: 801 | |
dc.subject.nsi | VDP::Medisinske Fag: 700 | en_US |