Objective: To describe the socioeconomic (SE) indicator developed for the analysis of the National Health and Nutrition Survey 2012 (NHNS 2012) and its validation.
Materials and methods: The SE indicator was generated imputing deciles of income level to the households on the NHNS 2012, using demographic and socioeconomic characteristics, and based on the National Income and Expenditure Survey 2010. As a validation, distribution of different household characteristics related to SE status was described by predicted decile.
Results: The resulting SE indicator adequately describes heterogeneity on standard socioeconomic variables, as schooling years of the head of household, income, access to services, and household assets.
Conclusion: The socioeconomic heterogeneity captured by the proposed SE indicator allows identifying variability and gaps on health outcomes and programs coverage related to socioeconomic level.