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@ARTICLE{Otten:285775,
      author       = {Otten, D. and Kasinger, C. and Kriechel, L. and Tibubos, A.
                      N. and Berger, K. and Schomerus, G. and McLaren, T. and
                      Beutel, M. E. and Speerforck, S. and Brähler, E.},
      collaboration = {investigators, NAKO},
      othercontributors = {Becher, Heiko and Bohmann, Patricia and Brenner, Hermann
                          and Castell, Stefanie and Fuhr, Daniela and Grabe, Hans and
                          Greiser, Karin Halina and Harth, Volker and Hebestreit,
                          Antje and Heise, Jana-Kristin and Jaskulski, Stefanie and
                          Karch, André and Keil, Thomas and Kiekert, Jasmin and
                          Krist, Lilian and Koch-Gallenkamp, Lena and Kuß, Oliver and
                          Lange, Berit and Leitzmann, Michael and Massag, Janka and
                          Meinke-Franze, Claudia and Mikolajczyk, Rafael and Obi,
                          Nadia and Peters, Annette and Pischon, Tobias and
                          Schikowski, Tamara and Schmidt, Börge and Schmidt, Carsten
                          Oliver and Schulze, Matthias and Velásquez, Ilais Moreno
                          and Wirkner, Kerstin},
      title        = {{D}epression and anxiety symptoms in internally migrated
                      women and men after the {G}erman unification: {B}aseline
                      results from the {G}erman {N}ational {C}ohort {S}tudy
                      ({NAKO}).},
      journal      = {Journal of migration and health},
      volume       = {13},
      issn         = {2666-6235},
      address      = {[Amsterdam]},
      publisher    = {Elsevier Ltd.},
      reportid     = {DZNE-2026-00311},
      pages        = {100403},
      year         = {2026},
      abstract     = {Internal migration is a special case in Germany, with its
                      history of two formerly divided and re-unified states. In
                      this study, we examined mental health of women and men who
                      migrated internally after the German reunification and
                      compared them with each other and with the non-migrated
                      population in Eastern and Western Germany.Baseline data of
                      161,795 participants (49.9 $\%$ women; internal migrants
                      East-West = 7160 [4.4 $\%]$ and West-East = 3966 [2.5 $\%])$
                      from the population-based German National Cohort were used.
                      Internal migration was measured using information on
                      previous (1988) and current residency. To assess mental
                      health (i.e., current depression and anxiety symptoms), the
                      Depression Module of the Patient Health Questionnaire
                      (PHQ-9) and the Generalised Anxiety Disorder Symptoms Scale
                      (GAD-7) were applied. Group differences were assessed using
                      analyses of covariance and Tukey's Tests. Strengths of
                      effects were tested using omega squared.Significant
                      differences in levels of current depression and anxiety
                      symptoms between the four groups were found for both women
                      and men, but effect sizes were extremely small (ω² ≈
                      0.000-0.002). East-West migrants reported slightly lower
                      current depression symptoms (adj. M women = 4.00, adj. M men
                      = 3.17) than West-East migrants (adj. M women = 4.48, adj. M
                      men = 3.69). For East-West migrated men the same was found
                      for anxiety symptoms (adj. M = 2.52 versus adj. M = 2.96).
                      Mental health of internal migrants was not better compared
                      to their non-migrated counterparts.Subgroup analyses
                      revealed group differences to depend on sex, but show
                      negligible effect sizes, with internal migration only
                      explaining less than 0.2 $\%$ of the variance for depression
                      and anxiety symptoms. Internal migration alone is thus no
                      substantial factor in explaining mental health differences.
                      Future studies should use longitudinal data to determine
                      temporal associations between internal migration and mental
                      health.},
      keywords     = {Depression and anxiety symptoms (Other) / German migrants
                      (Other) / German unification (Other) / Internal migration
                      (Other) / Mental health (Other) / NAKO (Other)},
      ddc          = {610},
      pnm          = {899 - ohne Topic (POF4-899)},
      pid          = {G:(DE-HGF)POF4-899},
      typ          = {PUB:(DE-HGF)16},
      pubmed       = {pmid:41883695},
      pmc          = {pmc:PMC13010428},
      doi          = {10.1016/j.jmh.2026.100403},
      url          = {https://pub.dzne.de/record/285775},
}