Abstract
Background: Social vulnerability occurs when the disadvantage conveyed by poor social conditions determines the degree to which one’s life and livelihood are at risk from a particular and identifiable event in health, nature, or society. A common way to estimate social vulnerability is through an index aggregating social factors. This scoping review broadly aimed to map the literature on social vulnerability indices. Our main objectives were to characterize social vulnerability indices, understand the composition of social vulnerability indices, and describe how these indices are utilized in the literature.
Methods: A scoping review was conducted in six electronic databases to identify original research, published in English, French, Dutch, Spanish or Portuguese, and which addressed the development or use of a social vulnerability index (SVI). Titles, abstracts, and full texts were screened and assessed for eligibility. Data were extracted on the indices and simple descriptive statistics and counts were used to produce a narrative summary.
Results: In total, 292 studies were included, of which 126 studies came from environmental, climate change or disaster planning fields of study and 156 studies were from the fields of health or medicine. The mean number of items per index was 19 (SD 10.5) and the most common source of data was from censuses. There were 122 distinct items in the composition of these indices, categorized into 29 domains. The top three domains included in the SVIs were: at risk populations (e.g., % older adults, children or dependents), education, and socioeconomic status. SVIs were used to predict outcomes in 47.9% of studies, and rate of Covid-19 infection or mortality was the most common outcome measured.
Conclusions: We provide an overview of SVIs in the literature up to December 2021, providing a novel summary of commonly used variables for social vulnerability indices. We also demonstrate that SVIs are commonly used in several fields of research, especially since 2010. Whether in the field of disaster planning, environmental science or health sciences, the SVIs are composed of similar items and domains. SVIs can be used to predict diverse outcomes, with implications for future use as tools in interdisciplinary collaborations.
Keywords: Climate; Disaster planning; Environment; Indices; Social vulnerability; Social vulnerability index; Tools.
Plain language summary
When bad things happen in society (like a war), or in nature (like a hurricane), or in health (like cancer), people living in poor social conditions are at risk of suffering more than people living in good social conditions. Having a higher risk in these situations because of social conditions is called social vulnerability. A common way to estimate social vulnerability is through an index that combines several social factors into one number. When this social vulnerability index number is high it means the risk is high that people will experience worse suffering after a bad event. This scoping review aimed to map the literature on these kind of index numbers called social vulnerability indices. Our main goal was to describe social vulnerability indices, understand what is included in social vulnerability indices, and describe how these indices are used in research. We showed that social vulnerability indices are commonly used in several fields of research. The use of these indices has been growing since 2010. Regardless of the field of study, social vulnerability indices are composed of similar factors. The most common factors represented at risk populations, education, and socioeconomic status. These indices have implications for future use as tools in interdisciplinary collaborations.