Informal caregivers are people providing some type of unpaid, ongoing assistance to a person with a chronic illness or disability. Long-term care measures and policies cannot take place without taking into account the quantitatively crucial role played by informal caregivers. We use the European Health Interview Survey (EHIS), the European Quality of Life Survey (EQLS), and the Study on Health and Ageing in Europe (SHARE) to measure the prevalence of informal caregivers in the European population, and analyze associated socio-demographic factors. This rate ranges between about 13 percent in Portugal and Spain, and more than 22 percent in Luxembourg, Belgium, and Denmark. It declines in older age groups and, on average, is lower in men than in women in all countries studied, and lower among the poorly educated compared to those with higher levels of education. However, large variance was observed in the average share of informal caregivers for most countries between the three surveys. Our findings, estimated through the three surveys, reveal common trends, but also a series of disparities. Additional research will be needed to enable policy makers to access a richer and more harmonized body of data, allowing them to adopt truly evidence-based and targeted policies and interventions in this field.

Das Coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 und die COVID-19-Erkrankung haben durch einen pandemischen Verlauf sowie die Ma?nahmen zu ihrer Bek?mpfung die Lebensumst?nde der Menschen im Jahr 2020 stark bestimmt. Die Ausbreitung der Infektion mit teilweise schweren...

Unintentional injuries cause much of the global mortality burden, with the workplace being a common accident setting. Even in high-income economies, occupational injury figures remain remarkably high. Because risk factors for occupational injuries are prone to confounding, the present research takes a comprehensive approach. To better understand the occurrence of occupational injuries, sociodemographic factors and work- and health-related factors are tested simultaneously. Thus, the present analysis aims to develop a comprehensive epidemiological model that facilitates the explanation of varying injury rates in the workplace. The representative phone survey German Health Update 2010 provides information on medically treated occupational injuries sustained in the year prior to the interview. Data were collected on sociodemographics, occupation, working conditions, health-related behaviors, and chronic diseases. For the economically active population (18–70 years, n = 14,041), the 12-month prevalence of occupational injuries was calculated with a 95% confidence interval (CI). Blockwise multiple logistic regression was applied to successively include different groups of variables. Overall, 2.8% (95% CI 2.4–3.2) of the gainfully employed population report at least one occupational injury (women: 0.9%; 95% CI 0.7–1.2; men: 4.3%; 95% CI 3.7–5.0). In the fully adjusted model, male gender (OR 3.16) and age 18–29 (OR 1.54), as well as agricultural (OR 5.40), technical (OR 3.41), skilled service (OR 4.24) or manual (OR 5.12), and unskilled service (OR 3.13) or manual (OR 4.97) occupations are associated with higher chances of occupational injuries. The same holds for frequent stressors such as heavy carrying (OR 1.78), working in awkward postures (OR 1.46), environmental stress (OR 1.48), and working under pressure (OR 1.41). Among health-related variables, physical inactivity (OR 1.47) and obesity (OR 1.73) present a significantly higher chance of occupational injuries. While the odds for most work-related factors were as expected, the associations for health-related factors such as smoking, drinking, and chronic diseases were rather weak. In part, this may be due to context-specific factors such as safety and workplace regulations in high-income countries like Germany. This assumption could guide further research, taking a multi-level approach to international comparisons.

In Germany, the provision of health services to people with mental disorders is an issue that is subject to controversial debate. On the one hand, regional differences exist in the distribution of psychotherapists in Germany. On the other hand, patients are often willing to accept the extra effort of having to travel further in order to access treatment even in case of a low supply. Thus, in addition to issues of access, an analysis of care provision also needs to take into account the actual level of services utilization. The present paper analyses the utilization of outpatient psychiatric and psychotherapeutic services and identifies individual and regional determinants.

Background: In Germany, patients are consulting general practitioners increasingly frequently, resulting in a high burden on the healthcare system. This study aimed to identify factors associated with frequent primary care attendance in the German healthcare system. Methods: The German Health Interview and Examination Survey for Adults (DEGS) is part of Germany’s national health monitoring, and includes a large representative sample of the German population aged 18–79 years. We defined the 10% of participants with the highest number of general practitioner contacts in the preceding 12 months as frequent attenders of primary care services. Binary logistic regression models with average marginal effects were used to identify potential determinants for frequent use of primary care services. Results: The sample comprised 7956 participants. Significant effects on frequent use of primary care were observed for low socioeconomic status, stressful life events, factors related to medical need for care such as medically diagnosed chronic conditions and for subjective health. In the full model, the number of non-communicable diseases and subjective health status had the strongest effect on frequent primary care use. We found an interaction effect suggesting that the association between subjective health status and frequent attendance vanishes with a higher number of non-communicable diseases. Conclusions: We observed strong associations between frequent primary care attendance and medical need for care as well as subjective health-related factors. These findings suggest that better coordination of care may be a preferred method to manage health services utilization and to avoid redundant examinations and uncoordinated clinical pathways. Further research is needed to clarify moderating and mediating factors contributing to high utilization of primary care services.