ArticlePopulation health metrics2015
The importance of regional availability of health care for old age survival - Findings from German reunification.
Article in Population health metrics, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 12 papers.
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Who cites it
12 citing papers in PubMed.
- Gender and East-West disparities in German neurosurgical training leadership.Neurosurgical review · 2026Article
- Intersectional Life Course Inequalities in Cardiovascular Health in Post-Apartheid South Africa.Journal of racial and ethnic health disparities · 2025Article
- National cultural characteristics as defined by Hofstede's dimensions and their associations with population health.BMC public health · 2025Article
- Closing the life expectancy gap: An ecological study of the factors associated with smaller regional health inequalities in post-reunification Germany.Social science & medicine (1982) · 2024Article
- Sex differences in cardiologic medication provision for adults with coronary heart disease: an analysis of health claims data from 2018 to 2020 in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany.BMC health services research · 2024Article
- Different health systems - Different mortality outcomes? Regional disparities in avoidable mortality across German-speaking Europe, 1992-2019.Social science & medicine (1982) · 2023Article
- The Short-Term Effects of European Integration on Mortality Convergence: A Case Study of European Union's 2004 Enlargement.European journal of population = Revue europeenne de demographie · 2021Article
- Avoidable Mortality in the German Baltic Sea Region Since Reunification: Convergence or Persistent Disparities?European journal of population = Revue europeenne de demographie · 2019Article
- Trends in gender differences in health at working ages among West and East Germans.SSM - population health · 2019Article
- Prevalence, Mortality, and Indicators of Health Care Supply-Association Analysis of Cardiovascular Diseases in Germany.Frontiers in cardiovascular medicine · 2018Article
- Is the Rise in the Prevalence of Renal Replacement Therapy at Older Ages the Price for Living Longer?Frontiers in public health · 2018Article
- Health Convergence Between East and West Germany as Reflected in Long-Term Cause-Specific Mortality Trends: To What Extent was it Due to Reunification?European journal of population = Revue europeenne de demographie · 2017Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundThis article investigates the importance of regional health care availability for old age survival. Using German reunification as a natural experiment, we show that spatial variation in health care in East Germany considerably influenced the convergence of East German life expectancy toward West German levels.
methodWe apply cause-deleted life tables and continuous mortality decomposition for the years 1982-2007 to show how reductions in circulatory mortality among the elderly affected the East German catch-up in life expectancy.
resultsImprovements in remaining life expectancy at older ages were first seen in towns with university hospitals, where state-of-the-art services became available first.
conclusionOur results suggest that the modernization of the health care system had a substantial effect on old-age life expectancy and helped to significantly reduce circulatory diseases as the main cause of death in East Germany.
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