A tool for rapid socioeconomic assessment.

Objective: To validate a simple wealth index scale (WIS) based assessment of socioeconomic status and compare it with existing kuppuswamy(KUP) scale.

Methods: Families of 300 children aged 6 to 59 months of acute diarrhoea enrolled in a cross-sectional study were interviewed for socio economic status using both 8 item ownership scale (WIS) and Kuppuswamy (KUP) scale, validated against a reference standard Income Scale (IS).

Results: Out of 111 people classified as low based on Income scale (IS), 17% were identified by WIS, and 21% by KUP.