Use of Spanish proposals for measuring social class in health sciences

Objective: Recognizing the need for a consensus tool to measure social class in health sciences, in 1995 the Spanish Society of Epidemiology (Sociedad Espanola de Epidemiologia [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. (C) 2011 SESPAS. Published by Elsevier Espana, S.L. All rights reserved.