Regional Disparities of Mortality in the Federal Republic of Germany

Abstract

This paper presents an ecological analysis of mortality differences in the FRG on the basis of the 75 planning regions. In addition to life expectancy at birth for males and females selected age-specific mortality rates are studied, ranging from infant mortality and premature mortality of persons at working age to old age mortality. By means of the statistical procedures of correlation and multiple regression analysis a quantitative evaluation of these hypotheses is achieved. The results show that variables from different explanatory dimensions (economic situation, level of education, marital status, amenities and tourism, net migration, medical care) hold significant effects.

Does it matter where I live in Western Europe?

“…The Adapted Mortality List, supplied by the Dutch Central Bureau of Statistics, is used as the standard list for regional comparison in this study and contains 53 causes of death (see appendix). Previous mortality studies in these countries were based on smaller regional entities, such as the German planning regions (Kemper and Thieme, 1991;Bundesforschungsanstalt ftir Landeskunde und Raumordnung, 1992), the German counties (Heins, 1991) or the Dutch COROP-regions (Mackenbach et al, 1990b;Van Poppel, 1987b). Most of these newly classified causes of death were not found to be contributing significantly to regional differentials and changes except the causes 'perinatal conditions' and 'motor vehicle accidents'.…”