Limitations of deprivation measures
Posted: Sat Feb 08, 2025 3:48 am
Jarman score
The Jarman score was developed in the 1980s primarily as a measure of General Practice workload (and as part of the calculation of deprivation payments to GPs). The Jarman score combined responses from GPs about their workload with eight census variables:
elderly living alone
% children under 5
% unskilled workers
% overcrowded households
% changed address in last year
% residents living in a household where the head was born in the New Commonwealth or Pakistan
% unemployed
% households containing lone parents
The greater the positive score, the poland rcs data more deprived – and in need of primary medical care – the resident population of a ward were. The Jarman score has not been recalculated since the 2001 Census.
The score was not originally intended to be used to measure deprivation, but became, over time, a proxy score in some cases.
It can be argued that there is a weakness in the Townsend and Carstairs approaches around the inclusion of non-car ownership.
In heavily urbanised areas with good public transport provision (and often poor provisioning for affordable parking), especially most parts of London, many people consciously choose not to own a car irrespective of economic background. Conversely, in rural areas and those with limited public transport options, access to a car is more or less essential – people with limited means may have to sacrifice other expenditure to allow for purchase and running of a motor vehicle.
While Townsend and Carstairs scores have always been calculated in the same way, societal changes may mean that there are issues of comparability over time.
The Jarman score was developed in the 1980s primarily as a measure of General Practice workload (and as part of the calculation of deprivation payments to GPs). The Jarman score combined responses from GPs about their workload with eight census variables:
elderly living alone
% children under 5
% unskilled workers
% overcrowded households
% changed address in last year
% residents living in a household where the head was born in the New Commonwealth or Pakistan
% unemployed
% households containing lone parents
The greater the positive score, the poland rcs data more deprived – and in need of primary medical care – the resident population of a ward were. The Jarman score has not been recalculated since the 2001 Census.
The score was not originally intended to be used to measure deprivation, but became, over time, a proxy score in some cases.
It can be argued that there is a weakness in the Townsend and Carstairs approaches around the inclusion of non-car ownership.
In heavily urbanised areas with good public transport provision (and often poor provisioning for affordable parking), especially most parts of London, many people consciously choose not to own a car irrespective of economic background. Conversely, in rural areas and those with limited public transport options, access to a car is more or less essential – people with limited means may have to sacrifice other expenditure to allow for purchase and running of a motor vehicle.
While Townsend and Carstairs scores have always been calculated in the same way, societal changes may mean that there are issues of comparability over time.