The Health Status and Healthcare Utilization of Ethnic Germans in Russia

Charlotte Arena, Christine Holmberg, Volker Winkler and Philipp Jaehn
Additional contact information
Charlotte Arena: Institute of Social Medicine and Epidemiology, Brandenburg Medical School Theodor Fontane, 14770 Brandenburg an der Havel, Germany
Christine Holmberg: Institute of Social Medicine and Epidemiology, Brandenburg Medical School Theodor Fontane, 14770 Brandenburg an der Havel, Germany
Volker Winkler: Heidelberg Institute of Global Health, Heidelberg University Hospital, 69120 Heidelberg, Germany
Philipp Jaehn: Institute of Social Medicine and Epidemiology, Brandenburg Medical School Theodor Fontane, 14770 Brandenburg an der Havel, Germany

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 19, issue 1, 1-13

Abstract: Ethnic German resettlers from the former Soviet Union are one of the largest migrant groups in Germany. In comparison with the majority of the German population, resettlers exhibit worse subjective health and utilize fewer preventive measures. However, there is little evidence on health among ethnic Germans who remained in Russia. Hence, the objective of this study was to determine the differences in subjective health, diabetes, smoking, and utilization of health check-ups between ethnic Germans and the majority population in Russia. We used data from the Russian Longitudinal Monitoring Survey II from 1994 to 2018 (general population of Russia n = 41,675, ethnic Germans n = 158). Multilevel logistic regression was used to calculate odds ratios (ORs) adjusted for age, sex, period, and place of residence. Analyses were furthermore stratified by the periods 1994–2005 and 2006–2018. Ethnic Germans in Russia rated their health less often as good compared with the Russian majority population (OR = 0.67, CI = 0.48–0.92). Furthermore, ethnic Germans were more likely to smoke after 2006 (OR = 1.91, CI = 1.09–3.37). Lower subjective health among ethnic Germans in Russia is in line with findings among minority populations in Europe. Increased odds of smoking after 2006 may indicate the deteriorating risk behavior of ethnic Germans in Russia.

Keywords: resettlers; migration; subjective health; smoking; diabetes; healthcare utilization (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/1/166/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/1/166/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2021:i:1:p:166-:d:710222

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().