Computation of Socio-Economic Status in the AWI-Gen Project.

The socio-economic status (SES) of participants in many public health, epidemiological, and genome-wide association studies is an important trait of interest. It is often used in these studies as a measure of direct interest or as a covariate. There are open methodological issues on how SES is computed. The Africa Wits INDEPTH Partnership for Genomic and Environmental Research (AWI-Gen) explores genomic and environmental factors in non-communicable diseases, particularly cardio-metabolic disease. In Phase I of AWI-Gen, approximately 12,000 participants were recruited at six sites in four African countries. Participants were asked questions about asset ownership. This technical note describes how AWI-Gen computed socio-economic status from the asset register.