Measuring Child Socio-Economic Position in Birth Cohort Research

The Development of a Novel Standardized Household Income Indicator

Bibliographic Data

ID15501424
AuthorsCostanza Pizzi (0000-0002-4519-2822, University of Turin, corresponding author), Matteo Richiardi (ISER, University of Essex, Colchester CO4 3SQ, UK), Matteo Guido Richiardi (0000-0002-3749-7386, University of Essex), Marie-Aline Charles (0000-0003-4025-4390, Inserm), Bénédicte Heude (0000-0002-1565-1629, Inserm), Jean-Louis Lanoë (Research Team on Early Life Origin (EAROH), Université de Paris, CRESS, INSERM, INRA, F-75004 Paris, France), Jean‐louis Lanoë (Inserm), Sandrine Lioret (0000-0002-2483-7820, Inserm), Sonia Brescianini (0000-0003-2627-1282, Istituto Superiore di Sanità), Virgilia Toccaceli (0000-0002-9038-521X, Istituto Superiore di Sanità), Martine Vrijheid (0000-0002-7090-1758, Universitat Pompeu Fabra), Franco Merletti (0000-0001-8846-7454, University of Turin), Daniela Zugna (0000-0002-5122-6144, University of Turin), Lorenzo Richiardi (0000-0003-0316-9402, University of Turin)
Year2020
Volume17
Issue5
Pages1700-1700
Publication date2020-03-05
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueInternational Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1661-7827 • E-ISSN: 1660-4601
PublisherMultidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute (PUBLISHER • CH)
DOI10.3390/ijerph17051700
PMID32150940
OpenAlexW3009305812
LanguageEN
Citations received4
References cited22

The assessment of early life socioeconomic position (SEP) is essential to the tackling of social inequalities in health. Although different indicators capture different SEP dimensions, maternal education is often used as the only indicator in birth cohort research, especially in multi-cohort analyses. Household income, as a direct measure of material resources, is one of the most important indicators, but one that is underused because it is difficult to measure through questionnaires. We propose a method to construct a standardized, cross-cohort comparable income indicator, the "Equivalized Household Income Indicator (EHII)", which measures the equivalized disposable household income, using external data from the pan-European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EUSILC) surveys, and data from the cohorts. We apply this method to four studies, Piccolipiù and NINFEA from Italy and ELFE and EDEN from France, comparing the distribution of EHII with other SEP-related variables available in the cohorts, and estimating the association between EHII and child body mass index (BMI). We found that basic parental and household characteristics may be used, with a fairly good performance, to predict the household income. We observed a strong correlation between EHII and both the self-reported income, whenever available, and other individual socioeconomic-related variables, and an inverse association with child BMI. EHII could contribute to improving research on social inequalities in health, in particular in the context of European birth cohort collaborative studies

Body mass index · Cohort · Cohort study · Context (archaeology · Economics · Environmental health · European union · Geography · Household income · Millennium Cohort Study (United States · Population · Socioeconomic status · Sociology · Birth, Development, and Health · Demography · Health disparities and outcomes · Health, Environment, Cognitive Aging · Medicine

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