• Bmc Public Health · Jan 2014

    Determinants of health check attendance in adults: findings from the cross-sectional German Health Update (GEDA) study.

    • Jens Hoebel, Anne Starker, Susanne Jordan, Matthias Richter, and Thomas Lampert.
    • Department of Epidemiology and Health Monitoring, Robert Koch Institute, General-Pape-Straße 62-66, 12101 Berlin, Germany. j.hoebel@rki.de.
    • Bmc Public Health. 2014 Jan 1;14:913.

    BackgroundIn Germany, adult health checks are carried out in the primary care setting for early detection of chronic conditions, such as cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, and kidney disease. This study aims to examine the social, behavioural, and health-related determinants of health check attendance among eligible adults in Germany.MethodsData were derived from the cross-sectional German Health Update (GEDA) study, a national health survey among adults in Germany carried out by the Robert Koch Institute. Analyses were restricted to respondents with statutory health insurance aged 35 years or older (n = 26,555). Logistic regression models were fitted to estimate associations between health check attendance and factors selected on the basis of Andersen's Behavioral Model of Health Services Use.ResultsAfter mutual adjustment, higher health check attendance was associated with a higher age, higher socioeconomic status, being married, stronger social support, physical activity, non-smoking, greater fruit and vegetable consumption, and higher use of outpatient care in both sexes. In women, higher attendance was related to alcohol consumption and having company health insurance (BKK) after multiple adjustment. In men, higher attendance was associated with better self-rated health after adjusting for all other factors.ConclusionsThe findings of this study suggest that people with an unfavourable risk factor profile, such as socioeconomically disadvantaged groups, smokers, physically inactive people, and persons with a low fruit and vegetable intake, are less likely to have health checks than those with a more favourable risk profile. Health checks carried out in the primary care setting should be evaluated for their effects on population health and health inequality.

      Pubmed     Free full text   Copy Citation     Plaintext  

      Add institutional full text...

    Notes

     
    Knowledge, pearl, summary or comment to share?
    300 characters remaining
    help        
    You can also include formatting, links, images and footnotes in your notes
    • Simple formatting can be added to notes, such as *italics*, _underline_ or **bold**.
    • Superscript can be denoted by <sup>text</sup> and subscript <sub>text</sub>.
    • Numbered or bulleted lists can be created using either numbered lines 1. 2. 3., hyphens - or asterisks *.
    • Links can be included with: [my link to pubmed](http://pubmed.com)
    • Images can be included with: ![alt text](https://bestmedicaljournal.com/study_graph.jpg "Image Title Text")
    • For footnotes use [^1](This is a footnote.) inline.
    • Or use an inline reference [^1] to refer to a longer footnote elseweher in the document [^1]: This is a long footnote..

    hide…