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Assessing the Effectiveness of Social Indices to Measure the Prevalence of Social Isolation in Neighbourhoods: A Qualitative Sense Check of an Index in a Northern English City
- Source :
- Social Indicators Research
- Publication Year :
- 2017
- Publisher :
- Springer Science and Business Media LLC, 2017.
-
Abstract
- Tackling the many negative health effects of social isolation has been identified as a policy priority in the UK and consequently many local authorities are developing strategies to ascertain its prevalence through the development of social indices. This paper provides a novel assessment of the emerging approach of developing indices to identify social isolation. It provides an overview of a selection of indices being developed by local authorities across England; considers the validity of such quantitative indices; and explores the extent to which more in-depth qualitative data collected at a neighbourhood level is additionally required. It draws on evidence of a social isolation index for older people created by a northern English local authority, assessing its validity through a qualitative sense check; an innovative approach which has not been attempted elsewhere. The paper contributes important knowledge to the growing literature in this field by further developing understanding around the most effective ways of identifying, measuring, and understanding social isolation at a local level. Our findings indicate that an index, alone, is insufficient to fully capture the multifaceted nature of social isolation as relevant indicators, unique to local spaces, which cannot easily be measured quantitatively, are often excluded. The paper offers a significant and original contribution to the debate for both academics who wish to gain a greater understanding of the role indices can play in identifying those most at risk of social isolation, as well as for policy makers and practitioners who are currently grappling with this challenging concept.
- Subjects :
- medicine.medical_specialty
Index (economics)
Sociology and Political Science
Qualitative property
03 medical and health sciences
0302 clinical medicine
Arts and Humanities (miscellaneous)
030502 gerontology
Human geography
Developmental and Educational Psychology
medicine
Selection (linguistics)
Indicators
030212 general & internal medicine
Sociology
Social isolation
Neighbourhood (mathematics)
Original Research
Wellbeing
business.industry
Field (Bourdieu)
Public health
General Social Sciences
Public relations
Index
Ageing
medicine.symptom
Neighbourhood
0305 other medical science
business
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 15730921 and 03038300
- Volume :
- 140
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Social Indicators Research
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....2d000a4bcca14c9d8cf5b9f65a28155a