A New Instrument (Scale) for Measuring the Socioeconomic Status of a Family: Preliminary Study

Abstract

Research questions: Can a new scale be developed for more accurate assessment of socioeconomic status of families in India? Hypothesis: The new instrument (scale) is useful for accurate assessment of socioeconomic status of families in India. Objectives: To devsie and test a new instrument to measure socioeconomic status of families in India. Design: Cross sectional community based study. Setting: Urban rural resettlement colony slum and mobile groups. Participants: Families residing in the above areas. Study tool: Filling up of information about socioeconomic status using the newly developed scale. Results: By a process of random sampling 2095 families in the National Capital Territory of Delhi were studied to find out their SES by using this scale. It was found that 31 families (1.5%) belonged to Upper high SES 221 (10.5%) to High 291 (14.2%) to Upper middle 507 (24.2%) to Lower Middle 745 (35.6%) to Poor and 294 (14.0%) belonged to Very Poor socioeconomic category. Conclusion: The instrument serves the purpose of categorizing the families in different socio-economic strata. However it needs to be tested in other areas to determine its validity reliability and utility. (authors)