Future research should investigate relationships using a sound theoretical basis and research designs that better account for the complex relationship between the built environment and health.

Background Direct oral anticoagulants (DOACs) are not only increasingly being used for the initial stroke prevention therapy but progressively also substitute vitamin K antagonist (VKA) treatment in patients with non-valvular atrial fibrillation (AF). DOACs have been compared regarding therapeutic efficacy and adverse outcomes to warfarin in several pivotal studies and showed non-inferiority in terms of stroke prevention and superiority in terms of bleeding complications. However, comprehensive comparative studies are lacking for phenprocoumon, a VKA prescribed frequently outside the USA and the UK and accounting for 99% of all VKA prescriptions in Germany. Patients treated with phenprocoumon seem to meet more often international normalized ratio values in the therapeutic range, which may have implications concerning their efficacy and safety. This study aims at comparing the risk of stroke and bleeding in phenprocoumon- and DOAC-treated patients with AF in an adequately powered observational study population. Methods Retrospective analysis of stroke and bleeding incidence of 837,430 patients (1.27 million patient years) treated with DOAC or phenprocoumon for stroke prevention in German ambulatory care between 2010 and 2017. Relative risks of stroke and bleeding were estimated by calculating cox regression-derived hazard ratios (HR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) of propensity score-matched cohorts. Results Patients treated with DOAC had an overall higher risk for stroke (HR 1.32; CI 1.29–1.35) and a lower risk for bleeding (0.89; 0.88–0.90) compared to phenprocoumon. When analyzed separately, the risk for stroke was higher for dabigatran (1.93; 1.82–2.03), apixaban (1.52; 1.46–1.58), and rivaroxaban (1.13; 1.10–1.17) but not for edoxaban (0.88; 0.74–1.05). The risk for bleeding was lower for dabigatran (0.85; 0.83–0.88), apixaban (0.71; 0.70–0.73), and edoxaban (0.74; 0.68–0.81) but not for rivaroxaban (1.03; 1.01–1.04). Conclusions This study provides a comprehensive view of the stroke and bleeding risks associated with phenprocoumon and DOAC use in Germany. Phenprocoumon may be preferable to DOAC treatment for the prevention of strokes in AF in a real-world population cared for in ambulatory care.

Background Elderly in need of long-term care tend to have worse health and have higher need of medical care than elderly without need for long-term care. Yet, characteristics associated with long-term care need can impede health care access: Higher levels of long-term care need come with physical and cognitive decline such as frailty and memory loss. Yet, it has not been investigated whether level of long-term care need is related to medical care utilization. Methods We investigated the association between the level of long-term care and medical specialist utilization among nursing home residents and home care recipients. We applied zero-inflated Poisson regression with robust standard errors based on a sample of statutory health insurance members. The sample consisted of 100.000 elderly over age 60. We controlled for age, gender, morbidity and mortality, residential density, and general practitioner utilization. Results We found a strong gradient effect of the level of long-term care for 9 out of 12 medical specialties: A higher level of long-term care need was associated with a lower probability of having a medical specialist visit. Yet, we did not find clear effects of the level of long-term care need on the intensity of medical specialist care. These findings were similar for both the nursing home and home care setting. Conclusion The findings indicate that inequalities in medical specialist utilization exist between elderly with differing levels of long-term care need because differences in morbidity were controlled for. Elderly with higher need of long-term care might face more access barriers to specialist medical care.

There is a controversy regarding temporal trends in prevalence of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Using nationwide claims data containing data for approximately six million statutory health insured children we aimed to examine a) trends of ADHD administrative prevalence during 2009–2016; b) regional variations in prevalence, and c) factors associated with an increased chance of ADHD diagnosis. The ICD-10 code ‘F90-hyperkinetic disorder’ was used to define an ADHD case. Global and Local Moran’s I tests were used to examine the spatial autocorrelation and k-means-cluster analysis to examine the course of ADHD prevalence in administrative districts over years. Two-level logistic regression was applied to examine individual- and district-level factors associated with ADHD diagnosis. The administrative prevalence of ADHD was 4.33% (95% CI: 4.31–4.34%). We observed pronounced small-area differences on the district level with prevalences ranging between 1.6% and 9.7%. There was evidence of strong spatial autocorrelation (Global Moran’s I: 0.46, p < 0.0001). The k-means-method identified six clusters of different size; all with a stagnating trend in the prevalence over the observation period of eight years. On the district level, a lower proportion of foreign citizens, and a higher density of paediatric psychiatrists and paediatricians were positively associated with ADHD with a more pronounced effect in urban districts.

Up to 50 % of patients with chronic diseases do not take their medication regularly. Poor adherence to drug therapy is associated with higher morbidity and mortality. A selective literature search using the terms adherence, compliance, concordance, persistence, medication management, and pharmaceutical care was performed. Evidence for improving adherence has been provided for the following principles: individual counselling of patients and care givers, medication management including simplifying dosing and use of combination tablets as well as the use of individual unit doses, e. g. blister cards. The effectiveness has only been shown for the duration of the interventions. The improvement of medication adherence represents an area of research with high impact on outcomes and cost. Measures to improve adherence may be as important as the development of novel therapies. However, prospective clinical evaluations with clinical endpoints are missing especially for the German health care system in order to develop recommendations for clinical practice. Joint efforts of physicians and pharmacists are needed.