Abstract
This study aimed to construct indices of living standards in rural Bangladesh that could be useful to study health outcomes or identify target populations for poverty-alleviation programmes. The indices were constructed using principal component analysis of data on household assets and house construction materials. Their robustness and use was tested and found to be internally consistent and correlated with maternal and infant health, nutritional and demographic indicators, and infant mortality. Indices derived from 9 or 10 household asset variables performed well; little was gained by adding more variables but problems emerged if fewer variables were used. A ranking of the most informative assets from this rural, South Asian context is provided. Living standards consistently and significantly improved over the six-year study period. It is concluded that simple household socioeconomic data, collected under field conditions, can be used for constructing reliable and useful indices of living standards in rural South Asian communities that can assist in the assessment of health, quality of life, and capabilities of households and their members.
Highlights
Measuring relative wealth or living standards of people in developing countries presents many challenges, especially since income data are often not available
The ability to construct such asset-based indices of living standards—sometimes referred to as socioeconomic position, wealth index, or socioeconomic index—has widespread applicability since information on dwelling characteristics and durable assets (a) is available from many large studies, such as the Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS), the World Health Survey (WHS) of the World Health Organization, and the Living Standards Measurement Survey (LSMS) of the World Bank (1-2); (b) has been collected in many research studies; and (c) is often more and reliably collected in a developingcountry setting compared to income or consumption data (1)
The Living Standards Index (LSI), incorporating the type of material in household floor, walls, and roof and ownership of durable assets, is compatible to economic indices used in many studies seeking to measure long-term living standards (1-2)
Summary
Measuring relative wealth or living standards of people in developing countries presents many challenges, especially since income data are often not available. The ability to construct such asset-based indices of living standards—sometimes referred to as socioeconomic position, wealth index, or socioeconomic index—has widespread applicability since information on dwelling characteristics and durable assets (a) is available from many large studies, such as the Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS), the World Health Survey (WHS) of the World Health Organization, and the Living Standards Measurement Survey (LSMS) of the World Bank (1-2); (b) has been collected in many research studies (such as the application presented here); and (c) is often more and reliably collected in a developingcountry setting compared to income or consumption data (1) Due to these advantages and as this approach is relatively new, having been first used by Filmer and Pritchett in 2001 (2), it is important to explore the properties of these indices and evaluate their outputs against conventional health and other indicators that are known to vary with social and economic standing across different countries and regions. One of the objectives of this research is to explore these properties using data from Bang-
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
