Updating and validation of the socioeconomic status scale for health research in Egypt

This study aimed to update and re-validate the scoring system of Fahmy and El-Sherbini for measurement of socioeconomic status in health research in Egypt. The new socioeconomic status scale has 7 domains with a total score of 84. Intra-and inter-observer variability and the internal consistency of the scale were assessed. A linear regression model was performed to determine the relative importance of each domain to the total score. Kappa coefficient was used to measure the agreement between the socioeconomic levels of the new and the old scales. There was a strong correlation between most of the 7 domains of the scale. Cronbach alpha for the scale was 0.66. The education domain contributed to 0.898 of variation in total score. There was a moderate agreement (kappa = 0.76) and strong positive significant correlation (r = 0.93) between the socioeconomic levels and scores of both scales. We conclude that the new socioeconomic status scale is valid and reliable.