A New Scale for Measuring the Socio-economic Status in Health Studies Conducted in Tehran

One of the most important determinants in health studies is health-related socio-economic status. The precise determination of health-related socio-economic classes is contingent upon updating the data and taking new cultural, social, and health factors. The objective of this study is to provide a practical method for determining the index and health-related socio-economic classes of the subjects under study.

A questionnaire containing68 items was developed as a tool to assess the socio-economic status index related to health. Data were collected from six hundred and four married individuals who were randomly recruited from the city of Tehran. To identify the prognostic variables of the model, linear regression method was used. Predicted values of the index were obtained using the model. Then, boundary lines were proposed to determine the five socio-economic classes using the K-means cluster method.

Education, employment, internet access at home, use of supplementary health insurance, and time spent in virtual reality (cyberspace) were among the significant variables.

The socio-economic class determination table at the end of the manuscript presents a step-by-step method for calculating the index and determining the desired class with respect to gender.