German Health Update (GEDA 2019/2020-EHIS) – Background and methodology

Abstract

Between April 2019 and September 2020, 23,001 people aged 15 or over responded to questions about their health and living conditions for the German Health Update (GEDA 2019/2020-EHIS). The results are representative of the German resident population aged 15 or above. The response rate was 21.6%. The study used a questionnaire based on the third wave of the European Health Interview Survey (EHIS), which was carried out in all EU member states. EHIS consists of four modules on health status, health care provision, health determinants, and socioeconomic variables. The data are collected in a harmonised manner and therefore have a high degree of international comparability. They constitute an important source of information for European health policy and health reporting and are made available by the Statistical Office of the European Union (Eurostat). They also form the basis of the Federal Health Reporting undertaken in Germany. Data collection began in April 2019, just under a year before the beginning of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, and continued into its initial phase, as of March 2020. As such, data from the current GEDA wave can also be used to conduct research into the health impact of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic.

Time trends in mental health indicators in Germany's adult population before and during the COVID-19 pandemic

“…Accordingly, public health authorities have set up ongoing population surveys in order to monitor mental health trends at high frequency and serve as an early warning system, for example in the US (73) and UK (74). In Germany, pre-pandemic mental health monitoring focused on the estimation of 12-monthprevalences of varying mental health indicators, based on health interview and health examination surveys conducted at perennial intervals [e.g., (75)(76)(77)(78)(79)]. In 2019, the Federal Ministry of Health commissioned the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) to establish a national Mental Health Surveillance in order to provide systematic and continuous evidence on the mental health of the population.…”

“…a conceptual foundation, core indicators for public mental health were identified (80) and prioritized by national stakeholders (81), integrating international expertise (82). With the onset of COVID-19 pandemic, first indicators from the comprehensive set had already been implemented in the running field work of the survey "German Health Update (GEDA)" (78). As the pandemic progressed, further measures were added to GEDA as well as to "COVID-19 vaccination rate monitoring in Germany (COVIMO)" (83).…”

“…Surveys Figure 1 maps the data collection periods for the two surveys and three indicators used in this study onto the phases of the COVID-19 pandemic in Germany. At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the third survey wave of the European Health Interview Survey as part of the study "German Health Update" (GEDA 2019/2020-EHIS) for Germany (78) had been in the survey phase conducting telephone interviews since April 2019. This survey included the screening questionnaire PHQ-8 (85), which comprises its abbreviated version PHQ-2 (86), as a measure of depressive symptoms.…”

Informal caregivers in Germany – who are they and which risks and resources do they have?

“…The results refer to a large nation-wide population-based sample of 22,646 respondents aged 18 years and older. Possible factors associated with selection bias have been considered by weighting according to age, sex and education ( 7 ). Nevertheless, the following limitations have to be considered.…”

“…The response rate according to the standards of the American Association for Public Opinion Research was 21.6% ( 6 ). A detailed description of the methodology as well as of the classification of the response rate of GEDA 2019/2020-EHIS is available elsewhere ( 7 ). For our analyses we used data from all respondents with a female or male gender identity aged 18 years an older ( n = 22,646).…”