Validating overcrowding measures using the UK Household Longitudinal Study

Overcrowding has been regarded as indicating material deprivation and treated as a proxy measure for individual socioeconomic status. Conventionally, 'persons per room' (PPR) has been employed to identify overcrowded households in UK survey data, though the 'bedroom standard' (BS) approach or the 'modified bedroom standard' (MBS) approach has been thought to capture overcrowded households better. Little is known about which overcrowding measure will perform well in regard to construct and face validity. In this work, associations between three overcrowding measures and socioeconomic (income and household tenure status) and health (satisfied with health and GHQ12) indicators were assessed, using the UK Household Longitudinal Study Wave 6 data. PPR, BS and MBS were derived using relevant housing grid information and housing information from the dataset, which were aggregated at a household level (N = 18,848). Raw scores were categorised into 'under occupied (rooms