[Cross-Sectional Analysis of the Health and Social Structure in Germany]

This research was conducted to find out if there are differences in health and social structure and, thus, living conditions within Germany on a federal state level. So far, research projects have mainly focused on either more aggregate or more small-scale, regional planning areas. However, due to the political, governmental, and institutional structures prevalent in Germany, it seems necessary to conduct health and social structure analyses not only on the macro and micro but also on the meso level. This would enable meeting the specific information requirements of all existing German political spheres and public health planning levels comprehensively. A set of 53 indicators taken from official German statistics was used to conduct a factor analysis. The latter revealed that the health and social structures could be thoroughly depicted by a total of 3 factors (indices) that, in total, explain roughly 80% of the total variance. In this case, the first index accounts for about 38%, the second for about 31%, and the third index explain roughly 11%. Testing the results through hierarchical as well k-Means cluster analyses provided additional confirmation. Overall, the results show great differences in health and social structures in Germany on a federal state level. In addition, a more in-depth look at the nature of the results shows that one needs to distinguish between 4, or rather even a total of 8 subregions. Most importantly, these findings reveal that the frequently and widely discussed East-West discrepancies do not enable an adequately differentiated approach to this issue. Rather, aside from aspects such as federal city state and state area differences, structures in Germany show several different and highly significant types of North-South divides.