Mothers, Morality and Abortion: The Politics of Reproduction in the Formation of the German Nation

Occupational sex segregation in state socialist and market economies: Levels, patterns, and change in East and West Germany, 1980s and 1998

BackgroundSocial inequalities in health exist globally and are a major public health concern. This study focus on a systematic investigation into the associations between health indicators, living conditions and parental educational level as indicator of the social status of 6-year-old children living in West and East Germany in the decade after re-unification. Explanations of observed associations between parental education and health indicators were examined.MethodsAll boys and girls entering elementary school and living in predefined areas of East and West Germany were invited to participate in a series of cross-sectional surveys conducted between 1991 and 2000. Data of 28,888 German children with information on parental education were included in the analysis. Information about educational level of the parents, individual living conditions, symptoms and diagnoses of infectious diseases and allergies were taken from questionnaire. At the day of investigation, atopic eczema was diagnosed by dermatologists, blood was taken for the determination of allergen-specific immuno-globulin E, height and weight was measured and lung function tests were done in subgroups. Regression analysis was applied to investigate the associations between the health indicators and parental educational level as well as the child's living conditions. Gender, urban/rural residency and year of survey were used to control for confounding.ResultsAverage response was 83% in East Germany and 71% in West Germany. Strong associations between health indicators and parental education were observed. Higher educated parents reported more diagnoses and symptoms than less educated. Children of higher educated parents were also more often sensitized against grass pollen or house dust mites, but had higher birth weights, lower airway resistance and were less overweight at the age of six. Furthermore, most of the health indicators were significantly associated with one or more living conditions such as living as a single child, unfavourable indoor air, damp housing condition, maternal smoking during pregnancy or living near a busy road. The total lung capacity and the prevalence of an atopic eczema at the day of investigation were the only health indicators those did not show associations with any of the predictor variables.ConclusionDespite large differences in living conditions and evidence that some poor health outcomes were directly associated with poor living conditions, only few indicators demonstrated poorer health in social disadvantaged children. These were in both parts of Germany increased levels of overweight, higher airway resistance and, in East Germany only, reduced height in children with lower educated parents compared to those of higher education. In both East and West Germany, higher prevalence of airway symptoms was associated with a damp housing condition, and lower birth weight, reduced height and increased airway resistance at the age of six were associated with maternal smoking during pregnancy. The latter explained to a large extent the difference in birth weight and airway resistance between the educational groups.

Within an environmental health study, dermatologic examination of 1273 pre-school-age children (5-7 years old) was carried out in selected areas of East (n = 287) and West (n = 987) Germany in spring 1991. On the basis of comparable genetic background, the influence of a different exposure to air pollutants on the manifestation of atopic diseases was investigated. Halle an der Saale (East Germany) and Duisburg (North/South) as well as Essen (West Germany) were chosen as polluted study areas, whereas the countryside town of Borken (West Germany) served as a control region. Outdoor pollution with particles and SO2 was significantly higher in Halle an der Saale. Of the total study group, 12.9% suffered from atopic eczema at the time of examination. The prevalence was highest in East Germany (17.5%; adjusted odds ratio [OR] 1.39, confidence intervals [GI] 0.77-2.52, compared to Borken). The reported frequencies of hay fever and asthma in the total study population were 2% and 1.3%, respectively, without significant differences between study sites. Some 34.7% of the children showed at least one positive skin prick test reaction; significantly (P < 0.001) higher sensitization rates were obtained in western regions (Essen, Duisburg-South) than in the control region (Borken) and East Germany. Multivariate analysis of the prevalence of atopic eczema showed associations with parental predisposition (OR 1.52, CI 1.03-2.25), sex (for boys, OR 0.63, CI 0.43-0.92), location (Duisburg-South vs Borken OR 0.52, CI 0.30-0.96), month of investigation (May vs April, and March vs February OR 0.55, CI 0.37-0.81), contact with rabbits (for girls, OR 2.90, CI 1.36-6.19), animal fur in bedrooms (2.17, 1.01-4.67), indoor use of gas without hood (1.68, 1.11-2.56), and distance of homes from a busy road (< 50 m 1.71, 1.07-2.73). Nonsignificant associations were observed for history of helminthic infections (OR 1.61, CI 0.98-2.64) and high parental education level (OR 1.83, CI 0.83-4.02). In East and West Germany, atopic eczema seems to follow a course different from that of respiratory allergic diseases and specific sensitization, a fact which underlines the need for a differentiated analysis.

BackgroundHealth and social conditions vary between West and East Germany.MethodsWe analyzed annual mortality data of all recorded deaths caused by lung, colorectal, breast and prostate cancer in Germany as they are published by the Federal Bureau of Statistics (FBS) encompassing the period 1980–2014 for former West Germany (WG) and 1990–2014 for former East Germany (EG). To compare East and West Germany we computed the ratio of the mortality rates in both parts (mortality rate ratio, MRR, <1 indicates a lower mortality in EG). Forecasting methods of time series analyses were applied (model selection based on the Box/Jenkins approach) to predict 5-year trends until 2019.ResultsLung cancer: In women mortality rose in both regions (WG: +2.8%, 1991–2014, EG: +2.2%, 1990–2014). In men mortality in WG declined between −2.1% and −1.2%, and by −2.7% (1993–2009) in EG which was followed by a plateau. Colorectal cancer: A decline was found in both WG (−3.1%, 1993–2014) and EG women (−3.8%, 1993–2008 and −2.0%, 2008–2014). A decline in EG men since 1992 (−0.9%, 1992–1997 and −2.3%, 1997–2014) mirrors the development in WG (−2.6%, 1995–2014). Breast cancer: Constant mortality decline in WG after 1996. In EG a decline (−2.4%, 1992–2007) was followed by a plateau with an MRR <1 (1990–2014). Prostate cancer: In WG a decline (−3.4%) came to a hold after 2007, while there was a constant decline of 1.5% in EG. The forecast indicated that mortality of colorectal/lung cancer in men and breast cancer reaches a plateau in future years.ConclusionCourses of mortality were similar between East and West, while existing differences are likely to remain in the near future.

The contribution of women's labour-force participation to attitudes about the family is the focus of recent comparative research, but the relationships between gender, work, and attitudes have not yet been compared across national contexts that differ dramatically in economic conditions. Using data from the German General Social Survey (ALLBUS) of East and West Germany and the International Social Survey Programme, this paper examines the relationship between the objective situation of women and subjective orientations to work and family life comparatively. In contrast to the prevailing Western patterns Unking family and work the former state-socialist systems were distinctive in the dual conditions of extremely high levels of female labour-force involvement and an encompassing system-level organization of family-support structures. The pattern of similarities and differences in gender-role attitudes between East and West Germans reveals that the former are no less traditionalist than the latter, and that the higher level of acceptance of female labour-force participation by East Germans is a result of the present condition of economic hardship and penury. The German case is placed in a broader perspective using data from other Western countries and Hungary. It is concluded that the state-decreed professional emancipation of women did not succeed in changing traditional gender-role attitudes.

Objective of this re-analysis of datasets from former East and West Germany was to examine the influence of maternal education on intrauterine growth in two different political and social systems. Information on socio-demographic or lifestyle factors and pregnancy outcome was available for 3374 liveborn singletons from West Germany (1987/88) and 3070 from East Germany (1990/91). Multiple logistic regression was used to estimate the association between maternal education and the risk of delivering a small-for-gestational-age (SGA) newborn below the 10th percentile of birthweight. Women with the lowest education had a significantly elevated risk of SGA newborns compared to women with the highest education in West (odds ratio [OR] = 2.58, 95% CI : 1.17-5.67) and East Germany (OR = 2.77, 95% CI : 1.54- 5.00). The distribution of factors known to influence intrauterine growth varied with education in both states. After adjusting for these factors, women with the lowest educational level still had a higher risk of SGA birth: OR (West) = 2.02, 95% CI : 0.87-4.72; OR (East) = 1.95, 95% CI : 1.02-3.74. Our findings support the assumption that in former socialist countries health inequalities as a result of social inequalities existed.

Objective: In comparing East and West Germany, we investigate task specialization and its association with marital stability twofold: (1) Has the association between women’s employment and divorce risk changed across marriage cohorts? (2) Are men’s levels of engagement in domestic tasks associated with divorce risk? Background: While older theories assumed that women’s employment destabilized marriages, newer theories suggest that men can re-stabilize marriages by changing their behavior and engaging in housework. Method: We analyze data from the SOEP using discrete-time event history models in a historical and a dyadic perspective. Results: Our results show that the associations between women's employment and the risk of divorce have been changing across marriage cohorts, and that this trend began earlier in East Germany. Husbands' relative contribution to division of housework is not found to stabilize marriages in East and West Germany, but we find differences between marriage cohorts in West Germany. Conclusion: Our findings confirm that the traditional male breadwinner model is no longer associated with a stable equilibrium in marriage in Germany. It appears that either the German society is still in the transitional stage, as men’s contributions to housework are shown to be irrelevant for marital stability; or that gender equality is not associated with the new stable equilibrium in marriages.

Background: The major objective of the study was to assess whether the extent of health inequalities varies between East and West Germany and whether differences in social Inequalities between both parts of Germany are associated with differences in health inequalities. Methods: Data were available from a representative sample of 5,311 persons from West Germany and 2,414 persons from East Germany in the same age group (25–69 years). The study protocol was nearly identical in both studies. Socioeconomic status (SES) was assessed by household equivalent income and by educational level. Health status was assessed by perceived general health and by the number of chronic conditions. Absolute differences as well as relative differences (odds ratios) in the morbidity rates between low and high SES groups were calculated. All analyses were performed separately for men and women. Results: Income inequalities are larger in West Germany as compared with East Germany, but there are minor differences between East and West Germany concerning educational inequalities and morbidity rates. Just about all measures indicated that health inequalities favouring the upper socioeconomic groups exist in East Germany as well as in West Germany and that there are no significant differences in the extent of health inequalities between both parts of Germany. Conclusion: Using two data sets which were raised with nearly identical study protocols, it can be concluded that health inequalities are very stabile as they do not seem to differ substantially despite the fact that both parts of Germany have experienced different social systems during the past 45 years.

The purpose of this study is to reveal that the use of international phonetic symbols has been different in East and West Germany from World War II to the present. There has been a deviation not only in the use of IPA‐international phonetic symbols chronologically and regionally, but also in the actual language use of diphthongs and Schwa-/ə/, which was also found to be realized differentially in East and West Germany. The results are as follows. First, before World War II, German diphthongs that were written as [ae ao ɔø] in East and West Germany were written as [aɛ̯ aɔ̯ ɔoe̯] in East Germany after the division, whereas they were written as [ai͜ au͜ ɔy͜] in West Germany. Second, Schwa-/ə/ en is written as weakened or omitted [n̩] in West Germany, however it was nasalized or was written as [m̩] and as [ŋ] depending on the phonological environment in East Germany. Third, the deviation of these IPA between East and West Germany were also found in the language usage.

The paper (1) reviews the value differences between west and east Germany after unification and their development to date, and (2) explains the fact that between 1990 and 1995 east and west Germany do not approach each other in terms of values. (1) Of the four values considered, equality is more strongly endorsed in west Germany, whilst achievement is more strongly endorsed in the east. Co‐determination finds more support in west Germany. Acceptancy of institutions differs in its two domains in opposite directions: Religiosity is more strongly supported in west Germany, morality in east Germany. Across all four values, differences between both parts of the country mostly remain constant or even grow between 1990 and 1995. (2) As the former German Democratic Republic relied heavily on ‘work’ as an integrative ideology, east Germans should still be able to create a feeling of togetherness today based on the work product they established under the GDR. On the other hand, as this work is no longer linked to an unjust and ineffective political and economic system, it retrospectively gains in value on the one hand. Yet, as it is inevitably poorly assessed in the economic reconstruction of east Germany, it continually loses its value on the other hand. As unification has set off these contradicting developments, east Germans attribute them to west Germany; hence their growing distance from west German values.

Trends in gender differences in health at working ages among West and East Germans

Until now mortality trends of melanoma and nonmelanoma skin cancer (NMSC) in Germany have been studied only in West Germany. We were interested in comparing mortality trends of melanoma and NMSC in West and East Germany before and after the post-communist transition. By analyses of health care utilization data in West and East Germany, we explored potential reasons for mortality differences between these regions. We analyzed mortality data of skin melanoma and NMSC of West and East Germany (1980-2005). We calculated sex-specific age-standardized mortality rates using the World Standard Population. We calculated age-specific mortality rates (20-39, 40-59, 60-79, 80+ years). Age-standardized skin melanoma mortality rates tended to be lower in East Germany than West Germany before reunification. After reunification rates became very similar. Age-standardized mortality rates of NMSC were continuously higher in East than West Germany. The mortality rate differences among East and West Germans in 1996-2005 are mainly due to 2.34- and 2.24-fold higher mortality rates among men and women aged 80 years, respectively, who live in East Germany. Even 15 years after reunification, mortality of NMSC is still higher in East than West Germany, although incidence rates of squamous cell cancers of the skin are not higher in East Germany. Differences in the participation in early cancer detection and health care utilization in West and East Germany do not sufficiently explain our findings.

Infections may play a role in the etiology of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), with Bordetella pertussis being a potential agent. The objective was to analyze the association of SIDS and infant pertussis hospitalization rates over time, comparing a previously unvaccinated population (West Germany) versus a predominantly vaccinated population (East Germany). We calculated SIDS rates per 1000 live births per state. Live births and SIDS were available from 1980 onwards for the West German states and from 1991 onwards for the East German states. We applied interrupted time series (ITS) analyses to investigate the role of two public health interventions in 1991 (West Germany) and in 2000 (West and East Germany), respectively. Infant pertussis hospitalizations were available for five West German and three East German states between 1994 and 2019. We used multilayer and multivariate correlation analyses to determine the correlation between SIDS and pertussis hospitalization rates, including Pearson correlation test and vector autoregressive (VAR) analysis. In West Germany, the average annual SIDS rate (per 1000 live births) increased from 1.08 in 1980 to 1.68 in 1991, before declining to 1.18 in 1992 and subsequently to 0.10 in 2020. In East Germany, the average annual SIDS rate (per 1000 live births) decreased from 0.79 in 1991 to 0.12 in 2020. The results of the ITS model indicated a significant change in both level and slope at the 1991 interventions (West Germany) and in slope at the 2000 interventions (West and East Germany). The correlation coefficients between SIDS and infant pertussis hospitalization rates were 0.69 (95% CI [confidence interval]0.41, 0.85; p < 0.001) in West Germany, and 0.41 (95% CI 0.03, 0.69; p = 0.037) in East Germany. The correlation decreased during later periods (2000-2019, 2010-2019), particularly in East Germany. The results of the VAR analysis corroborated the findings of the main analyses. SIDS and infant pertussis hospitalization rates were correlated in both West and East Germany. Further studies - including improved diagnostic assessment of pertussis - seem warranted. Not applicable.

The annual number of persons killed in road-traffic accidents in Germany declined by 36% from 2001 to 2008, yet official traffic statistics still reveal a marked difference in fatalities between the federal states of the former East and West Germany twenty years after German reunification. We retrospectively analyzed data from the Trauma Registry of the German Trauma Society (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Unfallchirurgie; TR-DGU). Patients receiving primary treatment that had an Injury Severity Score (ISS) of 9 or above were analyzed separately depending on whether they were treated in the former East Germany or the former West Germany. Data were obtained from a total of 26 866 road-accident trauma cases. With Berlin excluded, 2597 cases (10.2%) were from the former East Germany (EG), and 22 966 (89.9%) were from the former West Germany (WG). The percentage of the population living in these two parts of the country is 16.7% and 83.3%, respectively. The two groups did not differ significantly in either the mortality of injuries (EG 15.8%, WG 15.7%) or in the standardized mortality rate (0.89 [EG] vs. 0.88 [WG]). Over the years 2002-2008, the mean time to arrival of the emergency medical services on the scene was 19 minutes (EG) vs. 17 minutes (WG), and the mean time to arrival in hospital was 76 minutes (EG) vs. 69 minutes (WG). Among the hospitals whose cases are included in the TR-DGU, there is no significant difference between the former East and West Germany with respect to mortality or any other clinically relevant variable. Hypothetically, the higher rate of death from road-traffic accidents in the former East Germany, as revealed by national traffic statistics, might be attributable to a difference in the quality of care received by trauma patients, but no such difference was found. Other potential reasons for it might be poorer road conditions, more initially fatal accidents, and lower accessibility of medical care in less densely populated areas.

Background Heart failure (HF) is one of the most common diseases in the adult population with a prevalence of about 4% and a steady increase due to demographic and medical developments. In Germany, it is the most common primary diagnosis for inpatient treatment. Little was known so far about regional differences. Methods We retrospectively analyzed aggregated administrative data on the number and characteristics of in-patients in Germany for the period 2000 to 2017, obtained from the German Federal Health Monitoring, an annual complete census of in-patient routine data. The number and duration of hospitalizations as well as hospital mortality with the main diagnosis “I50” (HF) were analyzed over time with a special emphasis on regional differences between the federal states. Results The number of HF-related hospitalizations in Germany increased continuously: from 239,694 in 2000 to 464,724 cases in 2017 (+94%). This increase was more pronounced in East Germany than in West Germany (119% vs. 88%) [Figure 1]. The proportion of HF-related hospitalizations in relation to the total number of hospitalizations rose from 1.4% to 2.3% (relative increase +67%) in whole Germany. Accordingly, HF was the most frequent disease-related reason for hospitalizations in Germany in 2017, again with marked differences between East and West Germany (relative increase +96% vs. +61%). Similar differences were found after age-standardization: hospitalization rate due to HF in 2017 was higher in the East than in West Germany (609 vs. 490 cases per 100,000 population), reflecting a major increase compared to year 2000 (49% vs. 36%). Despite a continuous decrease in the length of stay (from 14.3 to 10.2 days; –29%), the total number of HF-related hospital days in Germany increased by 38% (4.72 million hospital days in 2017). In East Germany, the number of hospital days increased by 51%, in West Germany by 35% [Figure 1]. The in-hospital mortality rate of HF patients remained unchanged between 2000 and 2017 at about 38,000 cases per year, corresponding to 8.2% in 2017 (East Germany 8.4%, West Germany 8.2%). With a contribution of 8.9% of all hospital deaths, HF constituted the leading cause in 2017. Again, this proportion was higher in East compared to West Germany throughout the entire observation period (2017 10.8% vs. 8.5%). The rate of HF-related in-hospital deaths was also higher in East than in West Germany (2017: 65 vs. 43 per 100,000 population) [Figure 1]. Conclusion HF continues to be the most common cause of hospitalization and hospital deaths in Germany. HF-related morbidity and mortality parameters are higher in East than in West Germany. Possible explanations for this finding are differences in the prevalence of risk factors and the structure of patient care between these regions. A more detailed understanding of these striking discrepancies 30 years after the German reunification requires further investigations. Figure 1 Funding Acknowledgement Type of funding source: None