14.04.2024 – 11:41
NAKO Health Studies
Heidelberg (ots)
An unmet need for medical services can have a negative impact on health. Researchers led by the University Hospital Hamburg-Eppendorf (UKE) and the University Hospital Heidelberg (UKHD) asked participants in the NAKO health study which medical services they had used in the last 12 months. In their evaluation, the scientists particularly compared people with and without a migration background. They found that migrants, especially the first generation of immigrants, are less likely to seek psychological help than people without a migration background. The findings should help to better understand the needs of this group of people and make it easier for them to access specific care offers.
According to the Federal Statistical Office, almost 27 percent of the population in Germany lives with a migration background, which includes both first and second generation migrants. First-generation migrants have foreign citizenship or come from a foreign country of birth, while second-generation migrants have at least one foreign or foreign-born parent, but have no immigration experience themselves. “Although all EU Member States recognize the right to the highest possible standard of physical and mental health, previous studies have shown that there are inequalities in how migrants and non-migrants access health services. This can lead to negative health outcomes when there is a need for medical attention consequences for the affected group of people,” reports NAKO scientist Professor Dr. Heiko Becher from the Institute for Global Health at Heidelberg University Hospital (UKHD).
The data underlying the study were collected between 2014 and 2019 using a personal interview and a written questionnaire. 35,014 NAKO participants with a migrant background from 162 countries and 169,626 non-migrants took part in the survey. In the evaluation, the researchers took into account the diversity of the different migrant groups. The statistical analysis therefore compares different migrant groups based on their country of birth, as well as first and second generation migrants and non-migrants. The survey recorded the medical services used by general practitioners, psychiatric services and other specialists.
The results of the study show that first-generation migrants from Eastern Europe and Turkey as well as repatriates from the former Soviet Union reported comparable to slightly higher use of the services of general practitioners and specialists. What was noticeable, however, was a significantly lower use of psychology and psychiatry services compared to people without a migration background, but also compared to second-generation migrants. “The difference in psychiatric services between first- and second-generation migrants in our study can be partly explained by language barriers, which are often even greater for people in the first generation of migrants than for the following generation, but also by cultural differences,” explained the last author of the study, Prof. Heiko Becher.
“In conjunction with previous studies, our findings suggest that there is an unmet need for mental health services in Germany among first-generation migrants. This need should be addressed by promoting easier access and reducing barriers,” says Christian Wiessner, First author of the study and scientist at UKE. Such measures could include, for example, the use of interpreters or digital tools to reduce dependence on language skills, but also the training of cultural competences in healthcare workers or the promotion of health literacy among migrants.
Originalpublikation
Wiessner Christian, Licaj Sara, Klein Jens et al. Health Service Use Among Migrants in the German National Cohort-The Role of Birth Region and Language Skills. Int J Public Health, 2024, 06 March 2024, DOI10.3389/ijph.2024.1606377
Contacts Christian Wiessner, MSc Institute for Medical Biometry and Epidemiology University Hospital Hamburg-Eppendorf Christoph-Probst-Weg 1 20251 Hamburg [email protected] Prof. Dr. Heiko Becher Heidelberg Institute for Global Health (HIGH) Heidelberg University Hospital Im Neuenheimer Feld 130/3 69120 Heidelberg [email protected]
Press contact:
NAKO Health Studies
Dr. Friederike Fellenberg
+49 6221 – 426 2062
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Original content from: NAKO health study, transmitted by news aktuell