ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Public Health
Sec. Aging and Public Health
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1576223
This article is part of the Research TopicInnovations and Strategies for Comprehensive Frailty Management in Older PeopleView all 14 articles
The Italian cross-cultural adaptation of the Social Vulnerability Index
Provisionally accepted
Gloria Mangini1
Cristina Festari2*Silvia Ottaviani1
Luca Tagliafico1Gianluca Di Cara3Alessio Nencioni1
Fiammetta Monacelli1*- 1Department of Internal Medicine and Medical Specialties, School of Medical and Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Genoa, Genova, Italy
- 2Laboratory of Alzheimer's Neuroimaging and Epidemiology, San Giovanni di Dio Fatebenefratelli Center (IRCCS), Brescia, Lombardy, Italy
- 3Independent researcher, freelance translator, Genoa, Italy
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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.The Italian version of the SVI (SVI-I) has been developed through a comprehensive crosscultural adaptation of the original Canadian SVI. This process involved four steps: initial translation, synthesis of translations, back translation, and a Delphi procedure.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.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: social vulnerability, Frailty, Delphi consensus, Social vulnerability index, Italian adaptation, Cross-cultural adaptation
Received: 27 Feb 2025; Accepted: 23 Jul 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Mangini, Festari, Ottaviani, Tagliafico, Cara, Nencioni and Monacelli. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Cristina Festari, Laboratory of Alzheimer's Neuroimaging and Epidemiology, San Giovanni di Dio Fatebenefratelli Center (IRCCS), Brescia, 25125, Lombardy, Italy
Fiammetta Monacelli, Department of Internal Medicine and Medical Specialties, School of Medical and Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Genoa, Genova, Italy
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