The purpose of this research was to assess the effect of major social changes in Germany since 1989 on mortality due to intentional injury. Mechanisms and types of fatal intentional injury in East and West Germany between 1970 and 1995 were determined from death certificates and compared with judicial data on violent crime convictions and recent public survey data on citizen fear of crime. The ...

BACKGROUND East-West comparison studies in Europe find higher prevalences of infectious airway diseases and lower prevalences of allergies in eastern areas. Pollution from sulphur dioxide (SO2) or total suspended particles (TSP) are discussed as causes of this difference. METHODS In four differently polluted areas of East Germany where pollution decreased dramatically between 1989 and 1995 cr...

Air pollutants that damage human health and agricultural productivity, such as tropospheric ozone and black soot, also affect global climate. Multiple benefits of reducing these pollutants become more compelling as concern about global warming increases. Air pollution is especially harmful in developing countries that are now large emitters of carbon dioxide, providing incentive for developed a...

BACKGROUND Sub-Saharan Africa has one of the highest levels of child malnutrition globally. Therefore, a critical look at the distribution of malnutrition within its sub-regions is required to identify the worst affected areas. This study provides a meta-analysis of the prevalence of malnutrition indicators (stunting, wasting and underweight) within four sub-regions of sub-Saharan Africa. MET...

BACKGROUND Several epidemiological studies have shown consistently higher prevalence rates of obesity and overweight in East German adults compared to West German adults before German reunification in 1990. If different lifestyle factors after German division contribute to these differences, one might speculate that trends of obesity and overweight in the East and West after German reunificatio...

BACKGROUND Before German reunification, old-age mortality was considerably higher in East Germany than West Germany but converged quickly afterward. Previous studies attributed this rapid catch-up to improved living conditions. We add to this discussion by quantifying for the first time the impact of mortality selection. METHODS We use a gamma-Gompertz mortality model to estimate the contribu...

Toxoplasmosis is caused by intracellular protozoan parasite, Toxoplasma gondii (Nicolle et Manceaux, 1908). Cats and other felids are the definitive hosts. It could be transmitted to man and animals by consumption of infected undercooked meat and contaminated food items including drinking water. Results of toxoplasmosis epidemiological surveys in animals and humans in South-West, North-West, No...

Labor markets are the most important mediator of German uniication and wages are a central indicator of its progress. Starting from the observation that a wage diierential between two workers can arise either because workers have diierent endowments of human capital characteristics or remuneration to these characteristics diier, we apply an Oaxaca-style decomposition to the post-uniication wave...