This index measures social exclusion in the city of Belo Horizonte.
While the study did not have a specific measure of social exclusion, there was a common recurring theme on the limited social interactions.
The applied methodology of measuring poverty and social exclusion (EU-SILC) calls for critical reflection, because it systematically overlooks absolute or extreme forms of poverty.
In 2012, this threshold was set at about €1090 per month in Austria, at about €980 in Germany, at about €350 in Slovakia, at about €143 in Bulgaria, and finally, at only about €105 in Romania.5 The method that is used for the EU 2020 strategy measures poverty and social exclusion by the indicators of low income, low work intensity and/or material deprivation according to these thresholds.
Poverty is a prioritised issue in the European Union, and used as one indicator of social exclusion measured as at-risk-of-poverty, defined as disposable household income below 60percentt of the national median income [ 23].
Our study found associations of depressive symptoms with several measures of poverty and social exclusion including: financial difficulties, accommodation, father's unemployment, sole parenthood and access to a car.
The Emotion subscale measures negative emotions such as anger and sadness, the Social Inclusion subscale measures acceptance from and positive relationships with others, and the Social Exclusion subscale measures feelings of being left out and being treated differently than others [ 29].
However, the context in which the individual lives was measured by an index of social exclusion, was shown to be relevant even in underprivileged individuals.
Among the strongest and most persistent associations are measures of social disadvantage, inequality and social exclusion [ 10, 12, 19].
The definition of adequate policies, however, needs to rely not only on a measure of the level of poverty or social exclusion characterising a country but also on a clear knowledge of the underlying processes and trigger factors.
