[Use of Spanish proposals for measuring social class in health sciences]

Abstract

Objective: Recognizing the need for a consensus tool to measure social class in health sciences, in 1995 the Spanish Society of Epidemiology (Sociedad Española de Epidemiología [SEE]) made a proposal for such a measure. The aim of this article was to explore the bibliometric impact of the SEE's proposal.

Methods: Articles citing the SEE's report and those citing articles published as a result of the report were identified using Google Scholar and Scopus. The information extracted from these articles consisted of year, nationality and impact factor of the journal, self-citation, information source, subject area, city of the first author, type of publication, study design, use of social class as a variable, number of social class categories, and the use of education or occupation to determine social class.

Results: The number of citations progressively increased. Citations also showed heterogeneity in the subject. Generally, citations were found in original articles and articles with a cross sectional design, were published in journals with impact factor and were by researchers working in Barcelona or Madrid.

Conclusions: The SEE's proposal has proved to be an increasingly useful tool, applicable in different contexts. As suggested by the SEE, this proposal may need to be updated.