The validity of socioeconomic status measures among adolescents based on self-reported information about parents occupations, FAS and perceived SES; implication for health related quality of life studies

Abstract

BackgroundResearch has shown inconsistencies in results and difficulties in conceptualization of assessment of socioeconomic status (SES) among adolescents. The aim of this study was thus to test the validity of self-reported information on SES in two age-groups (11–13 and 14–16 years old) in an adolescent population and to evaluate its relationship to self-reported health related quality of life (HRQOL). Different measures of SES commonly used in research in relation to HRQOL were tested in this study; parent’s occupations status, family material affluence status (FAS) and perceived SES.MethodA cross-sectional study, with a sample of 948 respondents (n = 467, 11–13 years old and n = 481, 14–16 years old) completed questionnaires about SES and HRQOL. The adolescents’ completion rates were used, with chi2-test, to investigate differences between gender and age-group. Correlation was used for convergent validity and ANOVA for concurrent validity.ResultsWe found a low completion rate for both fathers’ (41.7 %) and mothers' (37.5 %) occupation status, and a difference in completion rate between gender and age-groups. FAS had the highest completion rate (100 %) compared to parent's occupations status and perceived SES. The convergent validity between the SES-indicators was weak (Spearman correlation coefficient below 0.3), suggesting that the indicators measured different dimensions of SES. Both FAS and perceived SES showed a gradient in mean HRQOL between low and high SES in relation to HRQOL, this was significant only for perceived SES (p < 0.01, both age-groups).ConclusionThis study indicates the need for considering different approaches to measures of SES among adolescences and when evaluating SES in relation to HRQOL. Further research is needed to investigate sustainable ways to measure SES, delineating the relevance of tangible measures of education, occupation and income in relation to the perceived socioeconomic status in comparison with others in immediate social networks and in society at large.

Lifecourse socioeconomic status and cancer‐related risk factors: Analysis of the WHO study on global ageing and adult health (SAGE)

“…One of the limitations of the study is that education and employment measures used in defining lifecourse SES were based on self-reported data, potentially vulnerable to social desirability or recall bias. Nevertheless, these measures have been shown to be more robust compared with income-based measures, particularly parental income[49]. …”

Social determinants of health and adverse maternal and birth outcomes in adolescent pregnancies: A systematic review and meta‐analysis

“…Studies on SES used different individual and area level factors to estimate SES. The unit used to measure SES has shown to impact the research outcomes . Use of individual level factor such as parent's education for measuring SES of adolescents has been critiqued previously for being an over simplistic approach which may not reflect the true SES as perceived by the adolescents .…”

“…49 Use of individual level factor such as parent's education for measuring SES of adolescents has been critiqued previously for being an over simplistic approach which may not reflect the true SES as perceived by the adolescents. 49 Currently, there are no guidelines regarding the best approach to measure SES of teenagers. 49 Future reviews should focus on identifying the most suitable way to measure SES of adolescent mothers to facilitate future research in this area.…”

“…49 Currently, there are no guidelines regarding the best approach to measure SES of teenagers. 49 Future reviews should focus on identifying the most suitable way to measure SES of adolescent mothers to facilitate future research in this area.…”

Processing of Electronic Medical Records for Health Services Research in an Academic Medical Center: Methods and Validation (Preprint)

“…Missing values are removed pair-wise for the regression analyses in this paper. Our methods to assess validity of these proxy measures are similar to methods used in numerous other studies [61][62][63].…”