Developing a socioeconomic index for health research in Iraq

Although socioeconomic status is one of the essential factors in much health research, it is one of the most difficult constructs to measure. The aim of this study was to develop a relatively accurate, easy-to-calculate method to estimate socioeconomic status (SES) for health research in Iraq as well as similar profile countries in the developing world. After reviewing various methods of calculating SES, a new method is proposed based on the 3 main variables: education, occupation and wealth/income. Additional refinement was done based on experience and job status. Content validity was calculated through experts' opinions and reliability through test/retest. Based on experts' opinions, it was found that the calculated content validity ratio for the SES index was relatively high and the correlation coefficient reliability for the six variables (education, occupation, income, wealth, experience and job status) was very high. Thus, the suggested method is reasonably valid, reliable as well as easy to calculate.