The measurement of poverty in psychiatric epidemiology in LMICs: critical review and recommendations.
Abstract
Purpose
Studies exploring the relationship between poverty and mental health in
low and middle income countries (LMICs) have produced somewhat
conflicting results. This has partly been attributed to poorly
operationalized and oversimplified poverty measures. This paper has two
aims: (1) to review how socio-economic outcomes in psychiatric
epidemiology in LMICs are measured; (2) based on this review, to provide
a set of generic recommendations for measuring poverty in psychiatric
epidemiology in LMIC. This is relevant for mental health researchers,
and for practitioners and policy makers who use mental health research
findings.
Methods
This review was part of a broader systematic review examining the
association between poverty and mental illness. An analytic framework
was developed to examine the definition and measurement of poverty in
these studies.
Results
The majority of studies provided no definition for the concept of
poverty being used, and very few measured poverty through standardized
or validated methods. Many poverty indicators were broken down into
extremely open-ended and vague categories, with no details on how the
parameters were defined or derived, and no documentation of the time
period and unit of analysis for which the poverty variable was measured.
Conclusions
This review revealed that using poverty as an indicator in mental
health research in LMIC is still in its infancy, with much room for
improvement. The implications of poor measurement of poverty in
psychiatric epidemiology are discussed. The recommendations provided
will hopefully help researchers in psychiatric epidemiology use the
concept of poverty in a much more critical, systematic and appropriate
manner.
Citation
Cooper, S.; Lund, C.; Kakuma, R. The measurement of poverty in psychiatric epidemiology in LMICs: critical review and recommendations. Springer Verlag (Germany), (2012) 1516 pp. [DOI: 10.1007/s00127-011-0457-6]