Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Why does inflation have to be figured in, while calculating the Kuppuswamy scale?
Check the original Kuppuswamy scale, in particular the income subscale. It would be difficult to reconcile that in the current time, a monthly income of > Rs. 2000 should represent the HIGHEST income class. If you choose to use the Kuppuswamy scale, it makes sense to keep the income classes updated by taking inflation into consideration.
You can read more about inflation on the
Wikipedia page
about it. It defines inflation as a persistent increase in the general price level of goods and services in an economy over a period of time.
What is the validity of the revised Kuppuswamy scale?
Validity of the real-time revised scale = Validity of the original scale + Some
The revision has not modified the scale (or the scoring) in any way. It just takes into consideration the concept of inflation for the income component. Whatever is the validity of the Kuppuswamy scale as a measure of socioeconomic status, use of the real-time update for the revision will increase the validity by some extent for certain. In fact, you can read up a critical appraisal of the Kuppuswamy scale in a recently published article. Article link
Still, I mean I would trust the revision more, if the validity was established by some reputed name like WHO etc.
The only ‘update’ in the revision is in the income subscale. This update is linked to the Consumer Price Index (CPI) figure. And these figures are updated and released by the Government of India monthly. So in a way, that is quite a robust source for validity!
Why the need for a web-based resource for updating the scale?
As the basic indicator for inflation is released monthly by the Govt. of India, the scale too changes monthly. It can only be kept relevant through a web-based calculator.
There have been so many print article updates of the Kuppuswamy scale recently. Why can’t I just use any one of them? Why the need for an additional reference to a web resource?
If you understood the logic behind the answer to the FAQ1 above, i.e. why the original income categories cannot be used as it is in the current times, the same logic extends to the print updates too. As they are fixed in one point in time, they slowly lose their validity of income classification with time. The only way to take inflation into account is to take the latest Consumer Price Index (CPI) value into consideration, which is possible by using a web-based calculator. You can check
this article
for further explanation.
Do I consider the Total Family Income (per month) or the Per Capita Income (per month) for the income subscale?
The income categories are meant to be total family income (per month); and not per capita income. The scale that considers per capita income is the
Prasad social classification. The clarification has been discussed in a recent article. Article link
So, in a nutshell, what is the need for a ‘real-time update’?
- If you have selected the Kuppuswamy scale as the tool of choice for measurement of socioeconomic status in your research work,
- If you agree that there is a need for updating the income category cut-points, that is, you get the logic for a revision,
- Then by extension of the same logic, there is need for a real-time update.
Can the Kuppuswamy scale be used in research studies being done in hospitals, in colleges, in health care facilities, in other institutional settings? In short, can it be used in data collection settings away from the home?
It can be used. The only care to be taken is to remember that the Education and Occupation of the head of family is to be asked for, for calculation of the scale. There will obviously be an additional limitation of how well the respondent is aware about these statistics about the head of his/her family.
A new value of the CPI is released each month. The data collection in my study is going to last more than one month. So, which value of the CPI to use in my research?
The CPI value changes monthly as discussed. It will not be practically feasible to use different values of the revised scale for different subjects, for a cross-sectional research study in which the data collection lasts more than a month. A recommendation can be to use the last available value of the CPI before printing of the questionnaires, for calculation of the revised scale for cross-sectional studies. For prospective follow-up studies where an individual is likely to be followed up at least six months apart, two different CPI values can be used for the baseline and the follow-up measurement.
{All of these are questions that have actually been asked of me!}