Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Trajectories of health-related quality of life in immigrants and non-immigrants in Germany: a population-based longitudinal study

  • Original Article
  • Published:
International Journal of Public Health

Abstract

Objectives

Due to a lack of longitudinal studies on health in immigrants, the purpose of the present study is to investigate trajectories of health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in immigrants and non-immigrants in Germany by considering the impact of immigration-related factors.

Methods

Based on longitudinal SOEP data from 2002 to 2012, the trajectories of the mental (MCS) and physical component (PCS) of HRQoL (assessed with SF-12v2) were analyzed in 8546 subjects, including 1064 immigrants by conducting hierarchical linear models.

Results

MCS remains stable over time, whereas PCS shows a decrease, influenced by increasing age. There were no differences between immigrants and non-immigrants concerning PCS trajectories as well as no influence of immigration-related factors on it. In contrast, MCS trajectories were influenced by immigration-related factors: 2nd-generation immigrants, participants from Turkey or Southern Europe and those who immigrated at young age show a slight decrease in MCS over time.

Conclusions

The results show negative association between MCS and time in different groups of immigrants. Future research is needed for better conceptualization of the complex interplay between health and migration over time to identify subgroups at greater risk for mental distress.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1

Similar content being viewed by others

Abbreviations

HRQoL:

Health-related quality of life

MCS:

Mental health component summary scale of the SF-12v2

PCS:

Physical health component summary scale of the SF-12v2

SOEP:

Socio-Economic Panel

FSU:

Former Soviet Union

References

  • Argeseanu CS, Ruben JD, Narayan KMV (2008) Health of foreign-born people in the United States: a review. Health Place 14:623–635

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Beutel ME, Jünger C, Klein EM et al (2016) Depression, anxiety and suicidal ideation among 1(st) and 2(nd) generation migrants—results from the Gutenberg health study. BMC Psychiatry 16:288

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Bhugra D, Gupta S, Schouler-Ocak M et al (2014) EPA guidance mental health care of migrants. Eur Psychiatry 29:107–115

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Biddle N, Kennedy S, McDonald JT (2007) Health assimilation patterns amongst Australian immigrants. Econ Rec 83:16–30

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Britzke J, Schupp J (2016) SOEP wave report 2016. https://www.diw.de/documents/publikationen/73/diw_01.c, 560446. Accessed 18 April 2018

  • Browne DT, Kumar A, Puente-Duran A et al (2017) Emotional problems among recent immigrants and parenting status: findings from a national longitudinal study of immigrants in Canada. PLoS ONE 12:1–14

    Google Scholar 

  • Bryk A, Raudenbush SW (1992) Hierarchical linear models for social and behavioral research: applications and data analysis methods. Sage, Newbury Park

    Google Scholar 

  • Brzoska P, Ellert U, Kimil A, Razum O, Sass A-C, Salman R, Zeeb H (2015) Reviewing the topic of migration and health as a new national health target for Germany. Int J Public Helath 60:13–20

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Carreon D, Noymer A (2011) Health-related quality of life in older adults: testing the double jeopardy hypothesis. J Aging Stud 25:371–379

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Daig I, Lehmann A (2007) Verfahren zur Messung der Lebensqualität. Zeitschrift für Medizinische Psychologie 16:5–23

    Google Scholar 

  • Decker O, Kiess J, Braehler E (2016) Die enthemmte Mitte. Autoritäre und rechtsextreme Einstellung in Deutschland. Die Leipziger Mitte-Studie 49–58

  • Ditte D, Schulz W, Schmid-Ott G (2006) Einstellung gegenüber der Psychotherapie in der russischen Bevölkerung und in der Bevölkerung mit einem russischen/sowjetischen kulturellen Hintergrund in Deutschland. Eine Pilotstudie. Der Nervenarzt 77:64–72

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Dowd JJ, Bengtson VL (1978) Aging in minority populations: an examination of the double jeopardy hypothesis. J Gerontol 33:427–436

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Ellert U, Kurth BM (2013) Gesundheitsbezogene Lebensqualität bei Erwachsenen in Deutschland: ergebnisse der Studie zur Gesundheit Erwachsener in Deutschland (DEGS1). Bundesgesundheitsblatt, Gesundheitsforschung, Gesundheitsschutz 56:643–649

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) (2016) Migration report 2015. http://www.bamf.de/SharedDocs/Anlagen/EN/Publikationen/Migrationsberichte/migrationsbericht-2015-zentrale-ergebnisse.pdf?__blob=publicationFile. Accessed 7 December 2017

  • Federal Statistics (2017a) Migration report 2016. https://www.destatis.de/DE/Publikationen/Thematisch/Bevoelkerung/MigrationIntegration/Migrationshintergrund2010220167004.pdf?__blob=publicationFile. Accessed 18 April 2018

  • Federal Statistics (2017) Migration report 2012. https://www.destatis.de/DE/Publikationen/Thematisch/Bevoelkerung/MigrationIntegration/Migrationshintergrund2010220127004.pdf?__blob=publicationFile. Assessed 19 April 2018

  • Ferraro KF, Farmer MM (1996) Double jeopardy to health hypothesis for African Americans: analysis and critique. J Health Soc Behav 37:27–43

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Field A, Miles J, Field Z (2012) Discovering statistics using R. Sage publications, Thousand Oaks

    Google Scholar 

  • Glaesmer H, Witting U, Braehler E et al (2011) Health care utilisation of first and second generation immigrants and the native population—a population based study in Germany. Int J Public Health 56:541–548

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Hosoya G, Koch T, Eid M (2014) Längsschnittdaten und Mehrebenenanalyse. Kölner Zeitschrift für Soziologie und Sozialpsychologie 66:189–218

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kroh M, Siegers R, Kühne S (2015) Gewichtung und Integration von Auffrischungsstichproben am Beispiel des Sozio-oekonomischen Panels (SOEP). Nonresponse Bias. Springer, Wiesbaden, pp 409–444

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Liddell BJ, Nickerson A, Sartor L et al (2016) The generational gap: mental disorder prevalence and disability amongst first and second generation immigrants in Australia. J Psychiatr Res 83:103–111

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Montazer S, Wheaton B (2017) Economic conditions in countries of origin and trajectories in distress after migration to canada: results from the national population health survey. Soc Ment Health 7:1–20

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nesterko Y, Braehler E, Grande G et al (2013) Life satisfaction and health-related quality of life in immigrants and native-born Germans: the role of immigration-related factors. Qual Life Res 22:1005–1013

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Nübling M, Andersen HH, Mühlbacher A (2006) Entwicklung eines Verfahrens zur Berechnung der körperlichen und psychischen Summenskalen auf Basis der SOEP–Version des SF-12 (Algorithmus). Deutsches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung. Data Documentation 16. https://www.diw.de/documents/publikationen/73/diw_01.c.44987.de/diw_datadoc_2006-016.pdf. Accessed 7 Dec 2017

  • Otto C, Haller AC, Klasen F (2017) Risk and protective factors of health-related quality of life in children and adolescents: results of the longitudinal BELLA study. PLoS ONE 12:1–17

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Razum O, Zeeb H (2004) Inequity, acculturation and the „Mediterranean paradox”. Int J Epidemiol 33:1411–1412

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Razum O, Zeeb H, Akgün HS et al (1998) Low overall mortality of Turkish residents in Germany persists and extends into a second generation: merely a healthy migrant effect? Trop Med Int Health 3:297–303

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Rivera B, Casal B, Currais L (2016) The healthy immigrant effect on mental health: determinants and implications for mental health policy in Spain. Adm Policy Ment Health 43:616–627

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Schenk L (2007) Migration und Gesundheit- Entwicklung eines Erklärungs- und Analysemodells für epidemiologische Studien. Int JPublic Health 52:87–96

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Seifert W (1997) Occupational and economic mobility and social integration of Mediterranean migrants in Germany. Eur J Popul 13:1–16

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Turra CM, Elo IT (2008) The impact of salmon bias on the Hispanic mortality advantage: new evidence from social security data. Popul Res Policy Rev 27:515–530

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Vang Z, Sigouin J, Flenon A et al (2015) The healthy immigrant effect in Canada: a systematic review. Population Change and lifecourse strategic knowledge cluster discussion paper series volume 3: issue 1, article 4. http://ir.lib.uwo.ca/pclc/vol3/iss1/4. Accessed 7 Dec 2017

  • Wagner GG, Frick J, Schupp J (2007) The German socio-economic panel study (SOEP)—scope, evolution and enhancements. Schmollers Jahrbuch J Appl Soc Sci Stud 127:139–169

    Google Scholar 

  • Wengler A (2013) Ungleiche Gesundheit. Zur Situation türkischer Migranten in Deutschland. Campus Verlag, Frankfurt

    Google Scholar 

  • Westphal C (2016) Healthy migrants? Health selection of internal migrants in Germany. Eur J Popul 32:703–730

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Medical Psychology and Medical Sociology, University of Leipzig, Philipp-Rosenthal-Str. 55, 04103, Leipzig, Germany

    Yuriy Nesterko, Carmen Meiwes Turrión, Michael Friedrich & Heide Glaesmer

Authors
  1. Yuriy Nesterko
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Carmen Meiwes Turrión
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Michael Friedrich
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Heide Glaesmer
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Yuriy Nesterko.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical statements

As our study has involved only a secondary analysis of anonymized data, an ethics approval was not required. Detailed information on ethical clearance and informed consent given by the participants can be found on Research Infrastructure “Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) via internet (https://www.diw.de/soep).

Additional information

This article is part of the special issue “Environmental and health equity”.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Nesterko, Y., Turrión, C.M., Friedrich, M. et al. Trajectories of health-related quality of life in immigrants and non-immigrants in Germany: a population-based longitudinal study. Int J Public Health 64, 49–58 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00038-018-1113-7

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00038-018-1113-7

Keywords

Search

Navigation