Publications by authors named "Tilman Brand"

Background: Comprehensive sexuality education (CSE) is a curriculum-based approach to learning and teaching about sexuality that focuses on the cognitive, emotional, physical, and social domains. The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) CSE guideline emphasizes gender issues and is firmly rooted in a human rights-based approach to sexuality. A recent cross-sectional community readiness assessment in Islamabad, Pakistan, found that the community is at the denial or resistant stage when it comes to implementing school-based sexuality education.

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Aim was to investigate to what extent cognitive functioning differs by three socioeconomic conditions: low income, being without employment, and living alone. A total of N = 158,144 participants of the population-based German National Cohort (NAKO) provided data on socioeconomic conditions and completed cognitive tests. Multivariable confounder-adjusted regression analyses indicated that cognitive functioning was lower in those with low income (b = -0.

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Article Synopsis
  • The integration of sex and gender in research is essential for valid data, especially in studying the mental health of hospital staff during the COVID-19 pandemic, but the extent of gender sensitivity in these studies is unclear.
  • A scoping review was conducted reviewing studies from various databases to evaluate the mental health of hospital staff, using specific psychometric scales and a developed gender sensitivity assessment tool.
  • Out of 3,112 identified studies, only 72 met the criteria, with most being cross-sectional; however, a significant majority mishandled the concepts of sex and gender, and only one study adequately addressed gender in their findings.
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Background: As crises escalate worldwide, there is an increasing demand for innovative solutions to enhance humanitarian outcomes. Within this landscape, digital health tools have emerged as promising solutions to tackle certain health challenges. The integration of digital health tools within the international humanitarian system provides an opportunity to reflect upon the system's paternalistic tendencies, driven largely by Global North organisations, that perpetuate existing inequities in the Global South, where the majority of crises occur.

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This review aimed to systematically quantify the differences in Metabolic Syndrome (MetS) prevalence across various ethnic groups in high-income countries by sex, and to evaluate the overall prevalence trends from 1996 to 2022. We conducted a systematic literature review using MEDLINE, Web of Science Core Collection, CINAHL, and the Cochrane Library, focusing on studies about MetS prevalence among ethnic groups in high-income countries. We pooled 23 studies that used NCEP-ATP III criteria and included 147,756 healthy participants aged 18 and above.

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To compare health service use (HSU) between migrants and non-migrants in Germany. Using data from the population-based German National Cohort (NAKO), we compared the HSU of general practitioners, medical specialists, and psychologists/psychiatrists between six migrant groups of different origins with the utilization of non-migrants. A latent profile analysis (LPA) with a subsequent multinomial regression analysis was conducted to characterize the HSU of different groups.

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Background: Experiencing financial insecurity and being underserved is often associated with low health literacy, i.e., the ability to identify, obtain, interpret and act upon health information, which may result in poor health outcomes.

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Background: Rigorous research trials have demonstrated that early childhood interventions can reach socially disadvantaged families and can have a lasting impact on the healthy development of their children. However, little is known about the internal and contextual factors that contribute to the long-term implementation of such interventions. In this study, we investigated the development of the home visiting program Pro Kind.

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Given the massive increase in digital health tools, the question about the impact of these tools on health equity has gained importance. The aim of this narrative review is to discuss the extent and central aspects of the digital divide. To illustrate the extent of the digital divide, we draw on data from the Liter@te study, which interviewed low-literacy individuals regarding their use of digital health tools and their digital health literacy.

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Community-based approaches are promising to promote physical activity in old age. The community readiness (CR) model offers a structured approach to assess community capacities to address a certain health topic before and after implementing an intervention. The objective of this study is to assess whether community-based capacity building for physical activity among the elderly has a lasting effect on CR.

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Objective: The objective was to assess the feasibility of incorporating trained community health mediators in COVID-19 prevention in a multicultural and disadvantaged setting in Bremen, Germany. Specifically, we aimed to develop and implement measures corresponding to the needs of the residents and to analyse the role of digital communication tools and sustainability factors of the health mediator approach.

Methods: A comprehensive process evaluation using 41 qualitative interviews with residents, mediator short surveys and group discussions, work documentation sheets, and a stakeholder workshop was carried out.

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Background: Forced displacement is a crucial determinant of poor health. With 31 people displaced every minute worldwide, this is an important global issue. Addressing this, the Participation Revolution workstream from the World Humanitarian Summit's Localisation commitments has gained traction in attempting to improve the effectiveness of humanitarian aid.

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Access to good healthcare and the conditions for good health is one of the central dimensions of immigrant integration. National health policies play a major role in equipping residents with the necessary entitlements to accessible and acceptable healthcare services. Rarely analysed so far is the contribution of migration-related health policies to equity in access to healthcare between immigrants and the general population.

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Providing comprehensive sexuality education (CSE) in schools is a work in progress in many countries throughout the world. In some countries, the journey is just beginning; in others, investments in this field have been made for many years. It is and has been difficult in Pakistan to implement and promote reproductive health, women's empowerment, and CSE.

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Background: Health literacy comprises the ability to identify, obtain, interpret and act upon health information. Low health literacy is a major risk factor for hospitalizations, use of emergency care and premature mortality among others. Known risk factors for low health literacy such as lower educational attainment, migration history and chronic illnesses overlap with those for long-term unemployment - in itself a risk factor for low health literacy.

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Background: Unemployed persons are at high risk for low health literacy. Most studies addressing health literacy of unemployed persons focus on risk factors for low health literacy or correlates of health literacy, but studies on needs of unemployed persons regarding health literacy are scarce. We aimed to obtain better understanding of health literacy needs of unemployed adults by triangulating the results from a scoping review on health literacy needs in unemployed adults and additional in-depth qualitative interviews.

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Background: Digital interventions offer a solution to address the high demand for mental health promotion, especially when facing physical contact restrictions or lacking accessibility. Engagement with digital interventions is critical for their effectiveness; however, retaining users' engagement throughout the intervention is challenging. It remains unclear what strategies facilitate engagement with digital interventions that target mental health promotion.

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Health-related quality of life (HRQL) among migrant populations can be associated with acculturation (i.e., the process of adopting, acquiring and adjusting to a new cultural environment).

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Objective: Communities are important settings for health promotion and prevention. The community readiness assessment offers a structured approach to assess resources and opportunities to tackle a health problem within a community. The assessment relies on semi-structured interviews with key informants from the communities.

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Evidence indicates that school-based sexuality education empowers children and adolescents with the skills, values, and attitudes that will enable them to appreciate their health and well-being, nourish respectful social and sexual relationships, understand their rights, and to make informed choices. Owing to organized community resistance and prevalent misconceptions, promoting sexual and reproductive health has been challenging, especially in conservative settings like Pakistan. This study aimed at systematically exploring communities' perceptions regarding implementing school-based comprehensive sexuality education by conducting a cross-sectional community readiness assessment in Islamabad, Pakistan.

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Background: There is a need for an accurate assessment of the patterns and determinants of sexual and reproductive health in South Asia owing to high fertility rates and high incidence of unplanned pregnancy among adolescents. Health indicator sets, with a wide range of health dimensions, also support in formulating evidence-based policies. For attaining this, indicators should be developed and prioritized based on consensus and relevance.

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Purpose: This study aimed to investigate time trends in relative and absolute socioeconomic inequality in smoking prevalence in Germany using several indicators for socioeconomic position.

Methods: We conducted a repeated cross-sectional study using representative samples of the German population aged between 25 and 64 years in 1995, 1999, 2005, 2009, and 2013 (n = 857,264). Socioeconomic position was measured by indicators for income, education, and occupation.

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Objective: The aim of the present study was to investigate the degree of depressive symptoms and life satisfaction (LS) as well as the association between acculturation and depressive symptoms among a large sample of persons with Turkish migration background in Germany, taking into account gender- and migration-related differences.

Methods: This study was part of a pretest for a large national epidemiological cohort study in Germany. Acculturation was measured using the Frankfurt Acculturation Scale (FRACC).

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Background: Studies of factors associated with the use of Internet-based health information generally focus on general, rather than migrant populations. This study looked into the reasons why Internet-based health information is used and the effects of migration-related factors, other socio-demographic characteristics and health-related factors on the tendency to consult the Internet.

Methods: In a cross-sectional survey conducted in eight superdiverse neighbourhoods - two each in Birmingham, United Kingdom; Bremen, Germany; Lisbon, Portugal and Uppsala, Sweden - participants were presented with six scenarios and asked to indicate the resources they most relied on when addressing a health concern from a given list.

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The German Prevention Act adopted in 2015 strengthens setting-based prevention approaches. The aim of this work was the presentation of the Community Readiness Model as an instrument for determining needs and improving health-promoting structures in the community setting, using the example of the promotion of physical activity in older adults. The needs assessment in the context of the model implementation was carried out by Community Readiness assessment, in which guided interviews on health promotion topics were conducted with key persons in communities.

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