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Time trends of cause-specific mortality among resettlers in Germany, 1990 through 2009

  • MORTALITY
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Abstract

Resettlers (in German: (Spät-)Aussiedler) form one of the biggest migrant groups in Germany. It is known that migrants have different mortality patterns compared to the autochthon population. In this paper, we combined data from three resettler cohorts and examined differences in mortality from non-communicable diseases among resettlers in Germany and the German population. Furthermore, we investigated time trends of cause-specific mortality for 20 years of follow-up and compared it with the German mortality rates. To assess differences in cause-specific mortality between resettlers and the general German population, we calculated standardized mortality ratios (SMRs). To ascertain mortality trends, cause-specific age-standardized mortality rates were calculated and modeled with Poisson regression and fractional polynomials. During the observation period, the study population accumulated almost 800,000 person-years and 5572 deaths were observed. All-cause mortality among resettlers was lower (SMR = 0.91, 95% CI = 0.89–0.94) compared to the general German population, as well as cardiovascular diseases (CVD) mortality (SMR = 0.82, 95% CI = 0.79–0.86). Results for cancer mortality varied considerably by cancer site. Analyses of time trends showed that all-cause and CVD mortality were decreasing over time in resettlers, as well as in the general German population. Lower all-cause mortality among resettlers is mainly explained by lower CVD mortality. Cancer-site specific mortality showed different results. Converging mortality rates may indicate an adaption of lifestyle behavior. However, there are no data on individual risk factors in this study.

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Acknowledgement

We want to thank to Dr. Amit Gulati, Institute of Medical Biometry and Epidemiology, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany for valuable comments which improved the paper.

Funding

Volker Winkler and Simone Kaucher were funded by the Deutsche Krebshilfe (Grant number 111232). Heiko Becher and Valentina Leier were supported by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (Grant Number 01ER1306 PERGOLA).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Unit of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Institute of Public Health, University Hospital Heidelberg, Im Neuenheimer Feld 324, 69120, Heidelberg, Germany

    Simone Kaucher, Andreas Deckert, Volker Winkler & Heiko Becher

  2. Institute for Medical Biometry and Epidemiology, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Martinistraße 52, 20246, Hamburg, Germany

    Valentina Leier & Heiko Becher

  3. Saarland Cancer Registry, Präsident-Baltz-Straße 5, 66119, Saarbrücken, Germany

    Bernd Holleczek

  4. MONICA/KORA Myocardial Infarction Registry, Central Hospital of Augsburg, Stenglinstraße 2, 86156, Augsburg, Germany

    Christa Meisinger

  5. German Research Center for Environmental Health, Institute of Epidemiology II, Helmholtz Zentrum München, Ingolstädter Landstraße 1, 85764, Neuherberg, Germany

    Christa Meisinger

Authors
  1. Simone Kaucher
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  2. Valentina Leier
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  3. Andreas Deckert
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  4. Bernd Holleczek
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  6. Volker Winkler
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  7. Heiko Becher
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Correspondence to Volker Winkler or Heiko Becher.

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Simone Kaucher and Valentina Leier are joint first authors.

Volker Winkler and Heiko Becher are joint senior authors.

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Kaucher, S., Leier, V., Deckert, A. et al. Time trends of cause-specific mortality among resettlers in Germany, 1990 through 2009. Eur J Epidemiol 32, 289–298 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10654-017-0240-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10654-017-0240-4

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