摘要：Summary. The present review describes and critically analyzes the main characteristics of deprivation
indices (DIs), meant as measures of material and social circumstances at a population level,
used to adjust for deprivation in small-area studies of environment and health. A systematic search
strategy in the period 1990-2009 was run on PubMed/Medline and Embase databases, and 41 articles
were selected. In most of the reviewed studies DIs appear to be pragmatically applied and
information is not adequate to evaluate whether the use of DIs is efficient. Suggestions for the use of
DIs are given foreseeing that more data on exposure, outcomes and other predictive factors will be
acquired, and information will be growingly available to disentangle the complex interplay between
exposure, health and deprivation.
