Estimating uncertainty in a socioeconomic index derived from the American community survey.

ABSTRACT: Socioeconomic indexes are widely used in public health to facilitate neighborhood-scale analyses. Although they are calculated with high levels of precision, they are rarely reported with accompanying measures of uncertainty (e.g., 90% confidence intervals). Here we use the variance replicate tables that accompany the United States Census Bureau's American Community Survey to report confidence intervals around the Yost Index, a socioeconomic index comprising seven variables that is frequently used in cancer surveillance. The Yost Index is reported as a percentile score from 1 (most affluent) to 100 (most deprived). We find that the average uncertainty for a census tract in the United States is plus or minus 8 percentiles, with the uncertainty a function of the value of the index itself. Sc

SUBMITTER: Boscoe FP 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9130578 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature