BMJ 1995;310:1067-1068 (22 April)

Letters

Proposed new deprivation index

Has major flaws in its derivation and validation

EDITOR,--David C E F Lloyd and colleagues propose a new deprivation index for use in general practice, which is based on the proportion of patients exempted from prescription charges because they have a low income. It is therefore a proxy for the proportion of the practice population living in poverty. The authors believe that it has advantages over the indices with which they compare it (Jarman, Townsend, and Carstairs)--namely, that it is practice based and can be frequently updated. They correlate it with the established deprivation indices, producing impressive results at health authority level but unfortunately presenting no results at the general practice level, where it is intended to be used.

There are major flaws in the derivation and validation of this index, which will adversely affect its utility as a measure of deprivation for practice populations. As the authors acknowledge, the . . . [Full text of this article]


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Relevant Article

Low income scheme index: a new deprivation scale based on prescribing in general practice
David C E F Lloyd, Conrad M Harris, and David W Clucas
BMJ 1995 310: 165-169. [Abstract] [Full Text]

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