Modified Kuppuswamy socioeconomic scale updated for the year 2021

Abstract

Socioeconomic status (SES) is one among important indicators to evaluate the health status and nutritional status of a family. It is a position attained by any individual within a system of hierarchical social structure. Various attempts have been done in past by eminent scholars and medical scientists to formulate a group of composite indexes to determine SES of an individual or a family living in urban or rural areas. The scales have included various composite indexes to take into account details pertaining to an individual or any family. Among all the available SES, the most widely used and popular scale in our country is "Modified Kuppuswamy SES" which is mostly used for urban areas. In this paper, we have aimed at revising and providing an "Updated Modified Kuppuswamy SES" for the year 2021. The scale was initially developed by Kuppuswamy in the year 1976 including index parameters like education, occupation, and total income which was further modified in later years to include head of families educational status, occupational status and overall aggregate income of the whole family, pooled from all sources. The Kuppuswamy SES has included 3 parameters and each parameter is further classified into subgroups and scores have been allotted to each subgroup which have been defined later in this paper. The total score of Kuppuswamy SES ranges from 3-29 and it classifies families into 5 groups, "upper class, upper middle class, lower middle class, upper lower and lower socio-economic class." Due to limitations, the Kuppuswamy SES needs regular update for income levels which is based on changing CPI values which makes the scale vulnerable to fluctuations over time.

Telegenetics: The experience of an Indian center (Centre for Human Genetics) during the COVID‐19 pandemic

“…For a family that would have required an overnight stay, a nominal charge of ₹500/family/day was included in the calculation. As a majority of patients referred to our clinics belonged to the lower socioeconomic strata (class IV and V on Kuppuswamy socioeconomic scale, Saleem & Jan, 2021 ), the travel and overnight estimates were at the lowest level of expenses likely to be incurred. Based on these calculations, the average cost savings per consultation was about ₹1,000 ($13.69).…”

The analysis of unparalleled struggle for existence of urban women informal workers in West Bengal, India for survival and resilience to COVID-19 pandemic risk

“…The location map has been prepared using ARC-GIS software. The updated version of Mishra & Singh ( 2003 ); Kumar et al, ( 2012 ); Saleem & Jan ( 2021 ) of Kuppuswamy’s ( 1976 ) socio economic status scale has been followed to identify socio-economic status of the informal workers of study area. This article mainly uses the 2012 updated scale because changes in inflation rate can change the values in monetary terms of the monthly income range scores.…”

Living with a large predator: Assessing the root causes of Human–brown bear conflict and their spatial patterns in Lahaul valley, Himachal Pradesh

“…The GPS coordinates along with other covariates such as types and causes of conflict (crop damage or livestock attack), crops cultivated and the crops damaged by HBB, mitigation measures owned by local people, dependency on the forest, an approximate distance of the village from the nearest HBB habitat (habitat type we defined in our previous article, (Sharief et al, 2020 )), distance from the road and the water resources were also recorded during the interview. The respondents' socioeconomic status was characterized using the Kuppuswamy socioeconomic scale, which accounts for education, occupation, and income together (Saleem, 2019 ). We used a one‐way analysis of variance (ANOVA) to understand whether the crop damage and livestock depredation varied significantly at different elevations and distances from the forest.…”