Is the built environment associated with morbidity and mortality? A systematic review of evidence from Germany.

The empirical evidence on this relationship mainly comes from Anglo-American countries whereas evidence from Germany is only emerging. Our objective is to provide a narrative overview and critical appraisal of the existing empirical evidence on the relationship between the built environment and morbidity/mortality in Germany. We conducted a systematic literature search where we included all empirical studies that linked the built environment aspects with morbidity or mortality outcomes.

In-depth statistical analysis of the use of a website providing patients' narratives on lifestyle change when living with chronic back pain or coronary heart disease.

Objective: To investigate the use of lebensstil-aendern.de ("lifestyle change"), a website providing peer narratives of experiences with successful lifestyle change, and to analyze whether peer model characteristics, clip content, and media type have an influence on the number of visitors, dwell time, and exit rates.

Methods: An in-depth statistical analysis of website use with multilevel regression analyses.

Community gardening, community farming and other local community-based gardening interventions to prevent overweight and obesity in high-income and middle-income countries: protocol for a systematic review.

Introduction: The worldwide prevalence of overweight/obesity has continued to rise over the last decades. To reverse this trend, public health authorities are exploring cost-effective interventions, especially in high-income and middle-income countries. Community gardening offers a unique opportunity for individuals to enhance physical activity levels and improve their diet.

Cross-cultural measurement invariance of the General Health Questionnaire-12 in a German and a Colombian population sample.

While the General Health Questionnaire, 12-item version (GHQ-12) has been widely used in cross-cultural comparisons, rigorous tests of the measurement equivalence of different language versions are still lacking. Thus, our study aims at investigating configural, metric and scalar invariance across the German and the Spanish version of the GHQ-12 in two population samples. The GHQ-12 was applied in two large-scale population-based samples in Germany (N = 1,977) and Colombia (N = 1,500).

Built environment and health: a systematic review of studies in Germany.

Objectives: Empirical research on the relationship between the built environment and health is increasing at a tremendous pace. However, findings from Anglo-American countries may not apply to the European context. Therefore, we systematically reviewed the existing evidence on the role of the built environment for leading risk factors and health behavior in Germany.

Dissemination strategies and adherence predictors for web-based interventions-how efficient are patient education sessions and email reminders?

The Internet offers the potential to efficaciously deliver health interventions at a low cost and with a low threshold across any distance. However, since many web-based interventions are confronted with low use and adherence, proactive dissemination strategies are needed. We, therefore, tested the efficacy of a 1-h patient education session as part of a rehabilitation program and an email reminder 4 weeks later on the publicity and use of a web-based intervention aimed at lifestyle changes in patients with either coronary heart disease or chronic back pain (CBP) and examined adherence predictors.

The association between physical environment and health: indicating the direction of effects using German panel data.

Background: A growing body of research has identified an association between health and physical residential environmental characteristics. However, the direction of effects remains unclear, and further research is needed to determine whether the residential environment influences health.

Objectives: To specify the direction of the association between environmental disadvantage and self-reported health.

Adjustment disorder as proposed for ICD-11: Dimensionality and symptom differentiation.

Although Adjustment Disorder as a diagnostic category is widely used in clinical practice it is critically discussed that it has not been conceptualized as a category with unique symptoms. Hence, the conceptualization of Adjustment Disorder is subject to substantive change in ICD-11 including core symptoms and additional features in a uni-faceted concept. Adjustment Disorder was assessed with a self-rating instrument in a representative sample of the German general population (N=2512).

[Risk Factors for Disability Pensioning Caused by Mental Disorders - A Systematic Review].

Meanwhile, mental disorders are the main reason for receiving a disability pension. The present study aimed at providing an overview of the German literature on characteristics and factors related to ERMD and pointing out the current state in this field of research. Revealing parameters that are accompanied by an ERMD is a precondition to prospectively prevent this trend.

A web-based peer-modeling intervention aimed at lifestyle changes in patients with coronary heart disease and chronic back pain: sequential controlled trial.

Background: Traditional secondary prevention programs often fail to produce sustainable behavioral changes in everyday life. Peer-modeling interventions and integration of peer experiences in health education are a promising way to improve long-term effects in behavior modification. However, effects of peer support modeling on behavioral change have not been evaluated yet.

The independent relations of both residential self-selection and the environment to physical activity.

Residential self-selection is supposed to bias the relation between residential environments and physical activity, but empirical analyses are still rare. This study examines the association while simultaneously considering the effect of residential self-selection criteria. One thousand two hundred and forty-five German students were asked to report their physical activity, their perceived environment, and their reasons for choosing their neighbourhood.

[Preoperative Information: What Do Patients Want to Know?].

Background: Aimed at supporting patient information, media forms were developed. While doing so patient views were predominantly not considered. Moreover, for one of the most common surgical procedures, herniated disk surgery, there rarely exists appropriate information material.

The German Version of the Hopkins Symptoms Checklist-25 (HSCL-25) --factorial structure, psychometric properties, and population-based norms.

Purpose: The Hopkins Symptom Checklist-25 (HSCL-25) has often been used in cross-cultural settings and in studies focussing on asylum seekers, refugees etc. It is available in a number of languages. The present study investigates the psychometric properties of the German version of the HSCL-25 and delivers population-based norms.

[A short version of the Narcissistic Personality Inventory (NPI-15): dimensionality and psychometric properties in a representative sample of the German population].

The Narcissistic Personality Inventory (NPI) is a commonly used measure of narcissism. This study administered a 15 item short version of the NPI (NPI-15). Central aims of the present study were to examine its dimensionality, and to provide data on its psychometric properties.

A short form of the General Self-Efficacy Scale (GSE-6): Development, psychometric properties and validity in an intercultural non-clinical sample and a sample of patients at risk for heart failure.

Objective: General self-efficacy has been found to be an influential variable related to the adaptation to stress and chronic illness, with the General Self-Efficacy (GSE) Scale by Jerusalem and Schwarzer being a reliable and valid instrument to assess this disposition. The aim of this study was to construct and test a short form of this scale to allow for a more economical assessment of the construct.

Methods: The item characteristics of the original scale were assessed using an intercultural non-clinical sample (n=19,719).

What is the General Health Questionnaire-12 assessing? Dimensionality and psychometric properties of the General Health Questionnaire-12 in a large scale German population sample.

Since the dimensionality and the related psychometric properties of the 12-item General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12) are still under debate, the present study compares different factor solutions from the literature to determine which shows the best fit and to investigate reliability and construct validity. The analyses are based on a German population based representative sample (N=2,041), using face-to-face-interviews. The confirmatory factor analysis indicates the best fit to the one-factor model including response bias on the negative worded items according to Hankins.

Six year stability of Type-D personality in a German cohort of cardiac patients.

Objective: The aim of the study was to systematically analyze the stability of Type-D personality over a time span of several years in a clinical sample.

Methods: In a prospective cohort study, cardiac patients from different medical settings in Germany were assessed using the DS14 questionnaire at baseline (n=1240) and at a mean follow-up time of six years (n=679). Different types of stability were examined and compared with the stability of the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS).

Association between type D personality and prognosis in patients with cardiovascular diseases: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Background: Since 1995, the association of type D personality and mortality in patients with cardiovascular diseases has been increasingly investigated.

Purpose: The aim of this meta-analysis was to integrate conflicting results and to examine possible moderators of this association.

Methods: Prospective studies assessing type D personality and hard endpoints were selected and pooled in meta-analyses.

Type D personality and persistence of depressive symptoms in a German cohort of cardiac patients.

Background: Depression is associated with a negative prognosis in coronary heart disease and heart failure patients. Type D personality has been shown to predict the persistence of depressive symptoms over 12 months. Data on longer follow-up periods and on the effectiveness of Type D as a screening tool compared to established measures of depressive symptoms are missing.

[The German Version of the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ): psychometric characteristics in a representative sample of the general population].

The Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ) has become internationally accepted as an assessment of traumatic childhood experiences. The short version assesses aspects of childhood abuse and neglect. In order to check the psychometric properties of the German short form, the CTQ was used within a representative sample of the German population (N=2 500).

Type D personality and all-cause mortality in cardiac patients--data from a German cohort study.

Objective: Type D personality has been established as a predictor of adverse clinical events in patients with cardiovascular diseases. To date, all studies except one have been conducted by a single research group. Thus, the aim of our study was to provide an independent replication of the results regarding the prognostic validity of Type D personality in a German sample of cardiac patients.

Gender differences in recovery goals in patients after acute myocardial infarction.

Purpose: : While cardiac rehabilitation has been established as an essential part of comprehensive cardiac care, participation rates for female patients are substantially lower than for male patients. Lower referral rates and higher ages of female patients partly explain this underutilization. Gender differences in recovery goals of cardiac patients have not been examined.