SynthesisInternational journal for equity in health2018
Inequalities in health care utilization among migrants and non-migrants in Germany: a systematic review.
Synthesis in International journal for equity in health, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 103 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
103 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 188 citations in OpenAlex.
- Oral health in migrant population of Germany: a systematic review and meta-analysis.BMC public health · 2026Pooled it
- Results and Strategies for a Diversity-Oriented Public Health Monitoring in Germany.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Pooled it
- Ethnic and migration-related inequalities in health anxiety: A systematic review and meta-analysis.Frontiers in psychology · 2022Pooled it
- Equity in Health Care: A Qualitative Study with Refugees, Health Care Professionals, and Administrators in One Region in Germany.BioMed research international · 2020Trial
- "Do not leave me behind and do not put me in your box": family-planning access and care needs among women with migration histories in Berlin, Germany-a mixed-methods study.Reproductive health · 2026Article
- Socioeconomic inequality in recommended childhood vaccinations in Germany: evidence from insurance claims and concentration index decomposition.BMC medicine · 2026Article
- Professional quality of life among migrant and non-migrant mental health staff in Germany: a gender-sensitive cross-sectional study.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Long-term trends and factors associated with migrant participation in Korea's National Health Screening Program: a nationwide retrospective population-based study.International journal for equity in health · 2026Article
- "Ich verstehe es nicht": the necessity of integrating professional interpretation into the German healthcare system.International journal for equity in health · 2026Article
- Healthcare utilisation among migrants in the Netherlands' unique hybrid healthcare system: the HELIUS study.BMJ global health · 2026Article
- Comparable Access, Different Outcomes: Breast Cancer Survival Among Syrian Refugees and Turkish Patients in Türkiye.Current oncology (Toronto, Ont.) · 2026Article
- Determinants of male healthcare utilization in Switzerland: does gender identity and migration background matter?BMC health services research · 2026Article
- Towards the development of actionable recommendations for improving mental healthcare access for migrants: a qualitative study in Munich, Germany.BMC public health · 2026Article
- Review
- The centrality of "family first" among Chinese migrants in determining experiences of palliative care: An integrative literature review.Palliative care and social practice · 2026Review
- Cinemeducation: a descriptive mixed-methods analysis of perspectives in a medical humanities course.Medical education online · 2025Article
- Equity by design principles for digital health interventions.International journal for equity in health · 2025Article
- [Utilization of the influenza vaccination among individuals over 60 years: spatial variations and regional risk factors].Bundesgesundheitsblatt, Gesundheitsforschung, Gesundheitsschutz · 2025Article
- Recruiting patients into a healthcare services trial: lessons learned from a feasibility study to investigate a patient-oriented navigation intervention for age-associated diseases.BMC health services research · 2025Article
- Differences in mental health symptoms and treatment by sexual orientation and migration background in a population-based sample.Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology · 2025Article
43 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
2 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundDespite the growing number of people with migrant background in Germany, a systematic review about their utilization of health care and differences to the non-migrant population is lacking. By covering various sectors of health care and migrant populations, the review aimed at giving a general overview and identifying special areas of potential intervention.
methodsA systematic review was conducted in PubMed database including records that were published until 1st of June 2017. Further criteria for eligibility were a publication in a peer-reviewed journal written in English or German language. The studies have to report quantitative and original data of a population residing in Germany. The appropriateness of the studies was judged by both authors. Studies were excluded if native controls were not originated from the same sample. Moreover, indicators of health care utilization have to assess individual behaviour like consultation or participation rates. 63 studies met the inclusion criteria for a qualitative synthesis of the findings.
resultsThe overall findings indicate a lower utilization among migrants, although the results vary in terms of health care sector, indicator of health care utilization and migrant population. For specialist care, medication use, therapist consultations and counselling, rehabilitation as well as disease prevention (early cancer detection, prevention programs for children and oral health check-ups) a lower utilization among people with migrant background was found. The lower usage was particularly shown for migrants of the 1st generation, people with two-sided migrant background, children/adolescents and women. Due to the methodological heterogeneity a meta-analysis was not feasible. As most of the studies were cross-sectional, no causal interpretations could be drawn.
conclusionsThe inequalities in utilization could not substantially be explained by differences in the socioeconomic status. Other reasons of lower utilization could be due to differences in need, preferences, information, language and formal access barriers (e.g. charges, waiting times, travel distances or lost wages). Different migrant-specific and migrant-sensitive strategies are relevant to address the problem for certain health care sectors and migrant populations.
trial registrationThe review protocol was registered on PROSPERO ( CRD42014015162 ).
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.