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. 2025 Aug 4:13:1576223.
doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1576223. eCollection 2025.

The Italian cross-cultural adaptation of the Social Vulnerability Index

Gloria Mangini #  1   2 , Cristina Festari #  3 , Silvia Ottaviani  1   2 , Luca Tagliafico  1   2 , Gianluca Di Cara  4 , Alessio Nencioni  1   2 , Fiammetta Monacelli  1   2 ; Delphi Consensus Panel
Affiliations

The Italian cross-cultural adaptation of the Social Vulnerability Index

Gloria Mangini et al. Front Public Health. .

Abstract

Background: Social vulnerability is a key health domain that is associated with frailty and disability in older adults, informing clinical trajectories and outcomes both on an individual and at a population level. The underlying concept is that frailty develops with the accumulation of physical, psychological, and social deficits, and the identification of losses in the social domain may allow for designing tailored interventions in a timely fashion. The aim of the present study was to adapt the Social Vulnerability Index (SVI) to the Italian language and culture for these purposes.

Methods: The Italian version of the SVI (SVI-I) has been developed through a comprehensive cross-cultural adaptation of the original Canadian SVI. This process involved four steps: initial translation, synthesis of translations, back translation, and a Delphi procedure.

Results: The result of the study is the face-valid 38-item SVI-I. Based on the Delphi procedure, the SVI-I can be administered to Italian-speaking, over-65, community-dwelling individuals not affected by cognitive decline.

Conclusion: This study develops the first index to measure social vulnerability in the Italian-speaking population, aiming at a multidimensional approach to address social and healthcare needs. If proven effective in subsequent validation studies, it may enhance geriatric assessments, improve early social vulnerability detection, and support tailored care plans.

Keywords: Delphi consensus; Italian adaptation; Social Vulnerability Index; cross-cultural adaptation; frailty; social vulnerability.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Graphical representation of the steps of the theoretical framework used for the cross-cultural adaptation of the SVI-I.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Overview of the Delphi procedure. In three rounds, 38 items and 11 statements about the layout were discussed. The figure illustrates the content of the Delphi questionnaires, indicating the number of statements discussed and the percentage of agreement.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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