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Background: Early childhood intervention is intended to systematically network and customise support services, particularly for socio-economically disadvantaged families. The programmes are universal or selective, but the evidence on their effectiveness is limited., Aims: The aims of this study were to exemplary analyse whether participants in early childhood intervention services had better development than non-participants using the school entry examination (SEE) as well as to discuss to what extent the SEE can be used to assess the impact of early childhood intervention services., Methods: We analysed three typical offers of early childhood intervention services (family education; Zukunft für Kinder (ZfK); Kita-U) in relation to full vaccination coverage and age-appropriate development at U9. Data from 4579 Düsseldorf first graders were included. Propensity score matching was used to calculate percentage differences (average treatment effect on the treated; ATT) in terms of immunisation coverage and development between comparable intervention and control groups., Results: All programmes are associated with a slightly increased probability of full vaccination protection (ATT 2.1 for family education; 2.5 for ZfK; 5.3 for Kita-U). Family education is also associated with a slightly higher probability of age-appropriate development (ATT 1.6), while the probability of age-appropriate development is lower for participants in ZfK (-10.1) and Kita‑U (-4.5)., Discussion: The evaluation of early childhood intervention, especially selective services, is a methodological challenge due to confounding and suitable comparison groups. However, the SEE could be a framework for impact analyses under specific conditions., Competing Interests: Einhaltung ethischer Richtlinien. Interessenkonflikt: S. Weyers und S. Götz geben an, dass kein Interessenkonflikt besteht. Alle beschriebenen Untersuchungen am Menschen wurden mit Zustimmung der zuständigen Ethikkommission, im Einklang mit nationalem Recht sowie gemäß der Deklaration von Helsinki von 1975 (in der aktuellen, überarbeiteten Fassung) durchgeführt. Von allen beteiligten Patient:innen liegt eine Einverständniserklärung vor. Das Votum der Ethikkommission der Medizinischen Fakultät der Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf liegt vor (Studiennummern 5394 und 5664). Von allen Teilnehmenden liegt eine Einverständniserklärung vor., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Background: Children with a low socio-economic position (SEP) participate in prevention and health examinations less often. In order to increase participation, reminder systems have been implemented in Germany since 2009. The aim of the study is to investigate whether this implementation is associated with an increased participation in health examination in early childhood for children in disadvantaged social circumstances., Methods: We used data from the school enrolment examination from 2002 to 2017 from the city of Duesseldorf (n = 64,883 children). With a trend analysis we observed health examination over time and we compared rates of children after implementation of the reminder system (2010 or later) to those who were not exposed to the programme (earlier than 2010). Health examination was measured by participation in the last examination before school entry ("U9") documented by paediatricians. Social circumstances included neighbourhood deprivation (very high to very low), migration background (foreign first language vs. German) and family status (one-parent vs. two-parent families). Poisson regression estimated adjusted Prevalence Ratios (PR) with a 95% confidence interval (CI) of U9 participation by reminder system exposure, both for the total population and within groups of social circumstances. Based on that, we calculated adjusted participation rates (predictive margins) by reminder system exposure for the different social circumstances., Results: Participation rates increased slightly, but gradually over time. The probability of U9 participation for children exposed to the reminder system is 1.04-fold (1.03-1.04 CI) compared to children who were not exposed to it. The association of the reminder system and U9 participation differs according to social circumstances. Adjusted prevalences increased the most in the group of children from very deprived neighbourhoods, ranging from 84.3 to 91.4% (PR = 1.07; 1.03-1.10 CI); in all language groups; more in children from one-parent families ranging from 82.4 to 88.9% (PR = 1.07; 1.05-1.09 CI)., Conclusion: Our results suggest that reminder systems have a moderate impact on the participation in health examinations in early childhood in the general population. In vulnerable groups, however, they could make a difference. Reminder systems should be combined with further activities of tailored prevention., (© 2021. The Author(s).)

Objective: To examine how different aspects of social relationships are associated with incident cardiovascular events and all-cause mortality., Methods: In 4139 participants from the population-based Heinz Nixdorf Recall study without previous cardiovascular disease (mean (SD) age 59.1 (7.7) years, 46.7% men), the association of self-reported instrumental, emotional and financial support and social integration at baseline with incident fatal and non-fatal cardiovascular events and all-cause mortality during 13.4-year follow-up was assessed in five different multivariable Cox proportional hazards regression models: minimally adjusted model (adjusting for age, sex, social integration or social support, respectively); biological model (minimally adjusted+systolic blood pressure, low-density and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, glycated haemoglobin, body mass index, antihypertensive medication, lipid-lowering medication and antidiabetic medication); health behaviour model (minimally adjusted+alcohol consumption, smoking and physical activity); socioeconomic model (minimally adjusted+income, education and employment); and depression model (minimally adjusted+depression, antidepressants and anxiolytics)., Results: 339 cardiovascular events and 530 deaths occurred during follow-up. Lack of financial support was associated with an increased cardiovascular event risk (minimally adjusted HR=1.30(95% CI 1.01 to 1.67)). Lack of social integration (social isolation) was associated with increased mortality (minimally adjusted HR=1.47 (95% CI 1.09 to 1.97)). Effect estimates did not decrease to a relevant extent in any regression model., Conclusions: Perceiving a lack of financial support is associated with a higher cardiovascular event incidence, and being socially isolated is associated with increased all-cause mortality. Future studies should investigate how persons with deficient social relationships could benefit from targeted interventions., Competing Interests: Competing interests: None declared., (© Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2020. Re-use permitted under CC BY-NC. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ.)

Hypersalivation describes a relatively excessive salivary flow, which wets the patient himself and his surroundings. It may result because of insufficient oro-motor function, dysphagia, decreased central control and coordination. This update presents recent changes and innovation in the treatment of hypersalivation. Multidisciplinary diagnostic and treatment evaluation is recommended already at early stage and focus on dysphagia, saliva aspiration, and oro-motor deficiencies. Clinical screening tools and diagnostics such as fiberoptic endoscopic evaluation of swallowing generate important data on therapy selection and control. Many cases profit from swallowing therapy programmes to activate compensation mechanisms as long compliances are given. In children with hypotonic oral muscles, oral stimulation plates can induce a relevant symptom release because of the improved lip closure. The pharmacologic treatment improved for pediatric cases as glycopyrrolate fluid solution (Sialanar ® ) is now indicated for hypersalivation within the EU. The injection of botulinum toxin into the salivary glands has shown safe and effective results with long-lasting saliva reduction. Here, a phase III trial is completed for incobotulinum toxin A and, in the US, is indicated for the treatment of adult patients with chronic hypersalivation. Surgical treatment should be reserved for isolated cases. External radiation is judged as a safe and effective therapy when using modern 3D techniques to minimize tissue damage. Therapy effects and symptom severity have to be followed, especially in cases with underlying neurodegenerative disease.

Background: Additional scientific surveys within the compulsory school entrance examination (SEE) have become increasingly popular, partly because the SEE potentially reaches all socioeconomic groups. However, it has not been sufficiently explored whether selective participation in voluntary supplementary surveys actually results in no selection bias along socioeconomic characteristics. Therefore, the aim of this study is to analyze the participation of potentially hard-to-reach families in a parent survey at the SEE., Materials and Methods: The parent survey on the utilization of community prevention has been linked to the SEE in a community in North Rhine-Westphalia. We compared families with low and higher education (CASMIN classification), families with and without migration background (at least one parent was not born in Germany), as well as single-parent and two-parent families. Using logistic regression we analyzed whether survey participation (n = 3410) and non-participation (n = 346) was different along all three indicators., Results: Families with low education were slightly more often among the group of participants compared to non-participants (11.2 vs. 8.8%; odds ratio (OR) 1.29; 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.85-1.95) and single-parent families slightly less often (14.1 vs. 17.7%; OR 0.75; 95% CI 0.55-1.02). Families with migration background participated significantly more often (52.9 vs. 46.1%; OR 1.27; 95% CI 1.01-1.60)., Conclusions: Hard-to-reach families could be recruited for a voluntary parent survey in the SEE to a satisfying degree. This illustrates the potential of the SEE for population-based basic and evaluation research.

Aim: In an evaluation study of preventive programmes, the recruitment success of families in difficult socio-economic circumstances was examined during the school entrance examination (SEE)., Method: Using a 3-stage recruitment procedure, parents were motivated to participate in the survey. The response rate was calculated for the entire cohort and separately for the single recruitment stages. Non-participants and participants were compared on 4 indicators of difficult socio-economic circumstances., Results:  52% of the parents participated in the study. The response rate reached 21% for the recruitment stage 'questionnaire with invitation to the SEE', 28% for stage 'personal delivery at the health department' and 4% for stage 'stamped addressed envelope'. Families with low education were more often non-participants (multivariate Odds Ratio (OR) 2.2; 95%-confidence interval (CI) 1.3-3.6). Marginal differences in study participation were present for unemployed families (OR 1.4; CI 0.6-3.2), single parents (OR 1.0; CI 0.6-1.8) and families with immigration background (OR 1.2; CI 0.7-1.5)., Conclusion: The response rate was adequate. Personal delivery achieved the highest response rate compared to the other stages. A parent survey at the SEE is a promising approach to access families in difficult socio-economic circumstances. Nevertheless, families with low education are still underrepresented., Competing Interests: Die Autoren geben an, dass kein Interessenkonflikt besteht., (© Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart · New York.)

Background and Aims: As a modifiable lifestyle factor, diet is hypothesized to play an important role in the progression of atherosclerosis. The aim of this study was to explore associations of comprehensive dietary patterns derived by cluster analysis with degree and progression of coronary artery calcification (CAC) over five years of follow-up., Methods and Results: In the population-based Heinz Nixdorf Recall study, 3718 participants (45-75 years; 47.6% men) without coronary heart disease completed a food frequency questionnaire at baseline. Five distinct dietary patterns were identified using cluster analysis: "Health-conscious", "Traditional German/Less alcohol", "Mediterranean-like", "Western" and "Animal fat/Alcohol" (used as reference). CAC was measured using electron-beam computed tomography at baseline and five years later. CAC after five years was predicted based on sex- and age-specific baseline percentiles. After comparing observed and predicted CAC Scores, CAC progression was classified as slow, expected, or rapid. Compared to "Animal fat/Alcohol" diet, a "Mediterranean-like" diet was associated with a relative risk (RR) for a rapid CAC progression in both sexes (men: 0.61; 95%-confidence interval [95%-CI]: 0.41; 0.90; women: 0.59; 95%-CI: 0.45; 0.78). Furthermore, reduced RRs were observed in women with a "Health-conscious" and a "Traditional German/Less alcohol" diet (0.63; 95%-CI: 0.47; 0.84, respectively 0.69; 95%-CI: 0.52; 0.90). No association was observed for a "Western" diet for both sexes. Similar results were revealed for degree of CAC., Conclusion: The study results support the hypothesis that a "Mediterranean-like" diet is associated with a lower CAC-progression and lower degree of CAC in men and women., (Copyright © 2017 The Italian Society of Diabetology, the Italian Society for the Study of Atherosclerosis, the Italian Society of Human Nutrition, and the Department of Clinical Medicine and Surgery, Federico II University. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Background and Aim: The dissection course is an essential part of preclinical medical education. At the Medical Faculty of Duesseldorf, an education concept has been developed with the aim, to reflect with students their experiences and to support them in dealing with the donor and preparation. The aim of this paper is to present the concept., Method: The education concept had a peer group approach. It comprised a lecture, a small group seminar and an online diary as core element. Finally, the concept was evaluated., Results: Approximately one sixth of students made use of the online diary. Selected entries are presented here. Also, one sixth of students took part in the evaluation. They rated the activity as helpful to prepare for the dissection course., Discussion: The education concept could be a corner stone of a longitudinal training to promote the adequate encounter with topics such as dying and death.

Background: Until now, insomnia has not been much of interest in epidemiological neighbourhood studies, although literature provides evidence enough for insomnia-related mechanisms being potentially dependent on neighbourhood contexts. Besides, studies have shown differences in sleep along individual social characteristics that might render residents more vulnerable to neighbourhood contextual exposures. Given the role of exposure duration and changes in the relationship between neighbourhoods and health, we studied associations of neighbourhood unemployment and months under residential turnover with insomnia by covering ten years of residential history of nearly 3,000 urban residents in the Ruhr Area, Germany., Methods: Individual data were retrieved from the Heinz Nixdorf Recall Study, a population-based study of randomly chosen participants from adjacent cities, which contains self-rated insomnia symptoms and individual social characteristics. Participants' residential addresses were retrospectively assessed using public registries. We built individually derived exposure measures informing about mean neighbourhood unemployment rates and months under high residential turnover. These measures were major predictors in multivariate logistic regressions modelling the association between social neighbourhood characteristics and insomnia in the whole sample and subgroups defined by low income, low education, social isolation, and change of residence. Traffic-related noise, age, gender, economic activity, and education were considered as covariates., Results: Nearly 12 per cent of the participants complained about insomnia. Associations of neighbourhood unemployment with insomnia were more consistent than those of residential turnover in the whole sample (adjusted OR 1.42, 95% CI 1.00-2.03 for neighbourhood unemployment and OR 1.33, 95% CI 0.78-2.25 for residential turnover in the highest exposure categories). In low-income and socially isolated participants, neighbourhood unemployment odds of reporting insomnia were particularly elevated (adjusted OR 2.90, 95% CI 1.39-6.02 and OR 3.32, 95% CI 1.11-9.96, respectively). Less educated participants displayed relatively high odds of reporting insomnia throughout all upper neighbourhood unemployment exposure categories. Change of residence weakened associations, whereas undisrupted exposure sharpened them by trend., Conclusions: Our findings hint at multiple stressors being effective in both the neighbourhood context and individual resident, possibly reflecting precarious life situations undermining residents' sleep and health chances. Moreover, our results suggest a temporal dependency in the association between neighbourhood and insomnia.

Socio economic inequalities in adult health behaviour are consistently observed. Despite a well-documented pattern, social determinants of variations in health behaviour have not been sufficiently clarified. This article therefore presents sociological pathways to explain the existing inequalities in health behaviour. At a micro level, control beliefs have been part of several behavioural theories. We suggest that these beliefs might bridge the gap between sociology and psychology by emphasising their roots in fundamental socio-economic environments. At a meso level, social networks and support have not been explicitly considered as behavioural determinants. This contribution states that these social factors influence health behaviour while being unequally distributed across society. At a macro level, characteristics of the neighbourhood environment influence health behaviour of its residents above and beyond their individual background. Providing further opportunity for policy makers, it is shown that peer and school context equalise inequalities in risky behaviour in adolescence. As a conclusion, factors such as control expectations, social networks, neighbourhood characteristics, and school context should be included as strategies to improve health behaviour in socially disadvantaged people.

Objective: Poor social relations are supposed to contribute to adverse health behaviour. We examined this association and the role of low socio-economic position., Methods: We regressed health behaviour on composite variables of the two exposures of social relations and socio-economic position (SEP). Social relations included networks and support; health behaviour was analysed in terms of smoking, poor nutrition and physical inactivity; socio-economic position comprised of income and education. Cross sectional data from a population based epidemiological study in German (4,814 men and women aged 45-75) was analysed., Results: Among the indicators for social relations, social isolation was consistently associated with adverse health behaviour; social support showed modest effect. A combination of poor social relations and low SEP displayed stronger (additive) associations with adverse health behaviour than each factor alone. However, superadditivity was excluded., Conclusion: Given the important role of health adverse behaviour in chronic disease development, results underline the relevance of social environment and socio-economic structure in Public Health interventions.

Inhabitants of deprived neighbourhoods are at higher risk of coronary heart disease. In this study we investigate the hypothesis that social inequalities at neighbourhood level become already manifest in subclinical coronary atherosclerosis, as defined by electron-beam computed tomography derived measures. Coronary artery calcification was assessed as a marker of atherosclerosis in a population based sample of 4301 men and women (45-75 years) without a history of coronary heart disease. Participants lived in three adjacent cities in Germany and were examined between 2000 and 2003 as part of the Heinz Nixdorf Recall Study. Individual level data was combined with neighbourhood level information about unemployment, welfare and living space per inhabitant. This dataset was analysed with descriptive and multilevel regression methods. An association between neighbourhood deprivation and subclinical coronary calcification was observed. After adjustment for age and individual socioeconomic status male inhabitants of high unemployment neighbourhoods had an odds ratio of 1.45 (1.11, 1.96) of exhibiting a high calcification score (>75th percentile) compared to men living in low unemployment areas. The respective odds for women was 1.29 (0.97, 1.70). Additional explorative analyses suggest that clustering of unhealthy lifestyles in deprived neighbourhoods contributes to the observed association. In conclusion, findings suggest that certain neighbourhood characteristics promote the emergence of coronary atherosclerosis. This might point to a pathway from neighbourhood deprivation to manifest coronary heart disease.

Background: Previous studies have shown that deprived neighbourhoods have higher cardiovascular mortality and morbidity rates. Inequalities in the distribution of behaviour related risk factors are one possible explanation for this trend. In our study, we examined the association between cardiovascular risk factors and neighbourhood characteristics. To assess the consistency of associations the design is cross-national with data from nine industrial towns from the Czech Republic and Germany., Methods: We combined datasets from two population based studies, one in Germany ('Heinz Nixdorf Recall (HNR) Study'), and one in the Czech Republic ('Health, Alcohol and Psychosocial Factors in Eastern Europe (HAPIEE) Study'). Participation rates were 56% in the HNR and 55% in the HAPIEE study. The subsample for this particular analysis consists of 11,554 men and women from nine German and Czech towns. Census based information on social characteristics of 326 neighbourhoods were collected from local administrative authorities. We used unemployment rate and overcrowding as area-level markers of socioeconomic status (SES). The cardiovascular risk factors obesity, hypertension, smoking and physical inactivity were used as response variables. Regression models were complemented by individual-level social status (education) and relevant covariates., Results: Smoking, obesity and low physical activity were more common in deprived neighbourhoods in Germany, even when personal characteristics including individual education were controlled for. For hypertension associations were weak. In the Czech Republic associations were observed for smoking and physical inactivity, but not for obesity and hypertension when individual-level covariates were adjusted for. The strongest association was found for smoking in both countries: in the fully adjusted model the odds ratio for 'high unemployment rate' was 1.30 [95% CI 1.02-1.66] in the Czech Republic and 1.60 [95% CI 1.29-1.98] in Germany., Conclusion: In this comparative study, the effects of neighbourhood deprivation varied by country and risk factor; the strongest and most consistent effects were found for smoking. Results indicate that area level SES is associated with health related lifestyles, which might be a possible pathway linking social status and cardiovascular disease. Individual-level education had a considerable influence on the association between neighbourhood characteristics and risk factors.

Against the background of health inequalities, the German Federal Centre for Health Education (BZgA) has coordinated the European project 'Closing the Gap: Strategies for Action to Tackle Health Inequalities in Europe'. Describing the state of the art of reducing health inequalities in each participating country has been one output of the EU project. The aim of this contribution is to present information for Germany with regard to research, political background, initiatives, quality and evaluation of interventions and public awareness. Despite the lack of a national strategy to tackle health inequalities, it can be concluded that there is a range of important activities which are supported by the federal government and which comprise different actors and sectors. Knowledge transfer across Europe can be helpful within the conception of a concerted action.