Title
Measuring Socioeconomic Status and Environmental Factors in the SAYCARE Study in South America: Reliability of the Methods
Date Issued
01 March 2018
Access level
open access
Resource Type
journal article
Author(s)
De Moraes A.C.F.
Forkert E.C.O.
Vilanova-Campelo R.C.
González-Zapata L.I.
Azzaretti L.
Iguacel I.
Moliterno P.
Moreno L.A.
Carvalho H.B.
Publisher(s)
Blackwell Publishing Inc.
Abstract
Objective: This paper aimed to test the reliability of two questionnaires in studies involving children and adolescents (aged 3-18 years) in seven South American cities. One assesses socioeconomic status (SES) and the other measures environmental factors. Methods: The SES questionnaire was composed of 14 questions, which included the presence of several consumer goods, domestic services, family income, parental education level, and current parental occupation status. The environmental questionnaire was composed of 15 questions to measure the social and infrastructure characteristics of the area of residence. Parents or guardians completed the questionnaires on behalf of their children. Adolescents answered the questions themselves for environmental factors, while those related to SES factors were answered by their parents or guardians. We analyzed the reliability of the questionnaires through kappa coefficient determination. Multilevel linear regression models were applied to calculate the correlation between the total household scores, the household income, and parents' education level. Results: The environmental questionnaire showed good reproducibility in both age groups (k = 0.132-0.612 in children and k = 0.392-0.746 in adolescents). The SES questionnaire showed strong reliability in both age groups for all indicators (k = 0.52-1.00 in children and k = 0.296-0.964 in adolescents). Conclusions: Our multiple indicator questionnaires focused on environmental factors and SES in pediatric health surveys provided useful and easily applicable additional indicators to measure these important determinants of cardiovascular health.
Start page
S14
End page
S22
Volume
26
Language
English
OCDE Knowledge area
Sistema cardiaco, Sistema cardiovascular
Ciencias médicas, Ciencias de la salud
Scopus EID
2-s2.0-85042360367
PubMed ID
Source
Obesity
ISSN of the container
19307381
Sponsor(s)
All authors acknowledge each school dean/chair and the children, adolescents, and their respective parents for their voluntary participation in the SAYCARE study. We also acknowledge Mr. Andrew Mello Silva for management of the SAYCARE database. In Colombia, we acknowledge the undergraduate students Carolina Alzate Echeverri, Luisa Fernanda Arroyave Zuleta, Sarah Lucía Ortiz Calderón, and Paola Zapata for helping collect information and for data entry.
Funding agencies: The SAYCARE study was supported mainly by the Brazilian Government through the National Counsel of Technological and Scientific Development (CNPq; proc. 471266/2013-2) and by the São Paulo state government through the São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP; proc. 2014/11468-6). It was also funded by the Collaborative Projects Fund (R.D. N8501-2015-INSN-DG-OEA) from the Instituto Nacional de Salud del Niño, Lima, Perú; the Sustainability Strategy, the Research Group of Social and Economic Determinants of Health and Nutrition, the Demography and Health Research Group, and Interuniversity Services Corporation (CIS) from the University of Antioquia, Medellin, Colombia; the Secretary of University Extension and Student Welfare, University of Buenos Aires, Argentina; and the European Regional Development Fund (MICINN-FEDER) though a grant to the GENUD Research Group. The General Coordination of SAYCARE received several scholarships to develop the project. ACFDeM received a postdoctoral scholarship from the National Counsel of Technological and Scientific Development (CNPq: proc. 313772/2014-2) and São Paulo Research Foundation-FAPESP (proc. 2014/13367-2 and 2015/14319-4). LAM was given a visiting professor scholarship from the São Paulo Research Foundation, FAPESP (proc. 2015/11406-3). HBC received an advanced scientist scholarship from the National Counsel of Technological and Scientific Development (CNPq: proc. 300951/2015-9) and HBC received Research Grant for Scientific Publication Paper from the São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP; proc 2017/15554-2). RCVC received a PhD scholarship from Coordination of Improvement of Higher Level Personnel (CAPES). Disclosure: The authors declared no conflict of interest. Author contributions: ACFDeM designed the study. ACFDeM, LAM, and HBC supervised the data analysis and interpretation. ACFDeM, ECOF, RCVC, LIGZ, LA, PM, LAM, and HBC contributed to the data collection. II and LH were involved in data interpretation. All authors were involved in the paper writing and approved the final version for submission. Additional Supporting Information may be found in the online version of this article. Received: 9 June 2017; Accepted: 14 December 2017; Published online 21 February 2018. doi:10.1002/oby.22115
Sources of information:
Directorio de Producción Científica
Scopus