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REVIEW article

Front. Public Health
Sec. Life-Course Epidemiology and Social Inequalities in Health
Volume 12 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2024.1403723

Individual-based socioeconomic vulnerability and deprivation indices: A scoping review

Provisionally accepted
  • 1 Department of Public Health Policy, School of Public Health, University of West Attica, Athens, Greece
  • 2 2nd Department of Internal Medicine, University General Hospital Attikon, Athens, Greece
  • 3 Department of Nursing, School of Health Sciences, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece
  • 4 Department of Clinical Therapeutics, “Alexandra” Hospital, School of Medicine, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Several individual-based social deprivation and vulnerability indices have been developed to measure the negative impact of low socioeconomic status on health outcomes. However, their variables and measurable characteristics have not been unequivocally assessed. A comprehensive database literature scoping review was performed to identify all individualbased social deprivation and vulnerability indices. Area-based indices and those developed for pediatric populations were excluded. Data were extracted from all eligible studies and their methodology was assessed with quality criteria. A total of 14 indices were identified, of which 64% (9/14) measured social deprivation and 36% (5/14) measured socioeconomic vulnerability. Sum of weights was the most common scoring system, present in 43% (6/14) of all indices, with no exclusive domains to either vulnerability or deprivation indices. A total of 83 different variables were identified; a very frequent variable (29%; 5/14) related to an individual's social relationships was 'seen any family or friends or neighbors'. Only five deprivation indices reported a specific internal consistency measure, while no indices reported data on reproducibility. This is the first scoping review of individual-based deprivation and vulnerability indices, which may be used interchangeably when measuring the impact of SES on health outcomes.

    Keywords: Socioeconomic status, health inequalities, deprivation, Socioeconomic vulnerability, index

    Received: 21 Mar 2024; Accepted: 25 Jun 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Palermos, Pavi, Halvatsiotis, Mangoulia, Sergentanis and Psaltopoulou. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Theodora Psaltopoulou, Department of Clinical Therapeutics, “Alexandra” Hospital, School of Medicine, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.