Discussion
The present analysis, for which we used available epidemiological estimates and statistical data, showed the following results: First, incidence of type 2 diabetes was estimated to be over twice as high among people living in the most deprived regions of Germany compared with people living in the least deprived regions. Second, no differences between men and women exist in the relationship between deprivation and type 2 diabetes incidence. Third, in the age group of >75 years, the IRR for type 2 diabetes was slightly lower in people with high regional deprivation compared with the younger age groups.
For Germany, there are currently no studies regarding the association between diabetes incidence and regional socioeconomic inequalities published. Some studies investigated the association between regional deprivation and the prevalence of type 2 diabetes or diabetes risk factors for Germany.4 9 10 12 For example, data from the TNS Health Care Access Panel in 2006 with 40.000 people from Germany and the representative German Health Update ‘GEDA’ telephone survey in 2009/2010 were used to assess the association of regional deprivation and type 2 diabetes prevalence or obesity in multivariate models. The age and sex-adjusted ORs of people living in the most deprived regions compared with people living in the least deprived regions were 1.66 (95% Cl 1.37 to 2.00) and 1.37 (95% Cl 1.19 to 1.58) for type 2 diabetes prevalence and 1.32 (95% Cl 1.19 to 1.47) and 1.33 (95% Cl 1.18 to 1.50) for obesity, respectively.9 10 The adjustment for further risk factors, such as smoking, physical activity and BMI, diminished the association in all of the models somewhat, for example, from an OR of 1.37 to 1.18 for diabetes prevalence in the fully adjusted model including these risk factors in the GEDA sample.10 These results indicate a slightly lower association between regional deprivation and type 2 diabetes prevalence than incidence we found in our analysis. Furthermore, diabetes risk factors could fully explain this association.10 However, both studies are based on representative samples of the general population of Germany, thus, the studies might not represent all people with type 2 diabetes in Germany.
Similar to our study, previous studies from northern Europe indicate a strong association between regional deprivation and diabetes incidence (OR between 1.22 and 3.71).2 15 16 18 A study from Scotland based on the National Diabetes Register revealed that between 2008 and 2013, incidence rates declined in the population except of the most deprived person groups.15 A cohort study from Finland, in which 3500 participants aged 6–18 years were followed up for 30 years, suggests that differences in lifestyle are already present in the years of childhood and adolescence.2 This led to an OR of 3.71 (95% Cl 1.77 to 7.75) for incident diabetes in adulthood in those with high neighborhood socioeconomic disadvantage, adjusted for covariates including individual SES.2 Another analysis from Sweden with 61 000 refugees aged 25–50 years showed an OR of 1.22 (95% Cl 1.07 to 1.38), adjusted for possible confounders including individual education level.16 It was also found that the strength of association between diabetes risk and high versus low regional deprivation increased over time, in 5 years by 9%.16
Type 2 diabetes incidence rates are higher in men than in women, especially in the middle age and higher age groups (≥40 years of age).15 20 When considering rate ratios comparing quintiles of regional deprivation, we found slightly increasing IRR by age except of the highest age group of >75 years, in which the IRRs of all quintiles were somewhat lower, but with overlapping CIs. Furthermore, no evidence for differences between men and women was present in the analysis of an association between type 2 diabetes incidence and regional deprivation. Possibly, the impact of regional deprivation is lower in the oldest age group, because a high proportion of people receives support in daily life from nursing personnel or lives in care retirement homes where the regional deprivation is not such an important factor. Because death rates are higher in the older population and in regions with high deprivation,23 the presence of survival bias is also possible which means that socioeconomic differences may be reduced in the input data. However, the estimation method we used is based on simple algebraic transformations of an analytical relation from the illness-death model, which is why possible bias typically occurring in survival analysis is unlikely.
Other European studies, all based on routine medical health records, revealed heterogeneous results. A study from the UK found that especially older male patients living in regions with high deprivation had the highest risk to develop type 2 diabetes, however, incidence rates in the age group of 65–74 years were higher than in the age group of >75 years, which is in line with our results.11 A study from Sweden presented crude incidence rates by age group and gender by the level of regional deprivation.14 By calculating IRRs for high compared with low deprivation, a trend towards decreasing IRR by increasing age and a higher IRR in women compared with men becomes apparent. A study from Madrid, Spain also found a greater association between neighborhood deprivation and diabetes incidence in women than in men, adjusted for age.18 Women living in neighborhoods with low deprivation had a 31% lower hazard rate for diabetes incidence (HR 0.69; 95% CI 0.59 to 0.80) compared with neighborhoods with high deprivation. In men, the difference was only 20% (HR 0.80; 95% CI 0.71 to 0.91).18 However, the CIs of men and women were overlapping, as we found in our analysis. It should be noticed that the results of the studies mentioned11 14 18 were not adjusted for individual SES. In our analysis, the estimates on mortality and prevalence ratios used for the analysis were adjusted for possible confounders including individual SES, thus, differences between the studies are possible. Furthermore, the CIs in our analysis remained relatively wide due to the assumptions we needed to make, thus the real effect sizes can slightly differ.
In addition to existing evidence on the association between SES and regional deprivation on diabetes incidence and prevalence,3 8–11 studies indicate that the effect of deprivation on diabetes risk increases over time.2 16 Moreover, lifestyle factors, that is, smoking, alcohol intake, physical activity, and BMI, explain up to 52% of the differences in diabetes risk by SES, as shown in the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing.5 Taken this evidence together, it is important to intensify public health actions to reduce social inequalities in the future. A good starting point is the concept of Europe 2020, the European policy for health and well-being, which was approved by the WHO in 2012.1 The aim is to tackle inequities and the social determinants of health.1 This includes structural changes to reduce poverty, for example, a higher minimum wage and higher taxes on high incomes and high profit companies and the development of living environments that supports a healthy lifestyle. Furthermore, primary prevention programs with a focus on reducing diabetes risk factors are needed predominantly in regions with high deprivation to improve health education.
Strength and weaknesses
The major strength of our study is that the approach we used enabled us to assess the association between nationwide diabetes incidence and regional deprivation in Germany for the first time. Because no nationwide diabetes register is implemented in Germany so far, opportunities for population-based epidemiological analyses in the field of diabetes such as the present one are restricted to routine data, regional cohort studies, or representative surveys for the general population (with only few people with diabetes included). For our analysis, which is based on the illness-death model, we used solely valid estimates, such as the information on differences in type 2 diabetes prevalence by area deprivation measured using the validated German Index of Socioeconomic Deprivation.12 Simultaneously, it was necessary to make a number of assumptions, which resulted in wide CIs, which is the major weakness. For example, estimates on mortality of the general population according to quintiles of deprivation were needed. The only study that was available for Germany was a study based on the SOEP in which the equivalized disposable income was used to estimate differences in mortality by socioeconomic differences.27 Moreover, in the Scottish study23 we used for mortality by regional deprivation, the quintiles were defined at a national level. This means the deprivation quintiles could vary between Scotland and Germany. However, the Scottish and German population is comparable, as described in the Participants and Methods section, which means that big differences in regional deprivation quintiles are unlikely. Furthermore, examples in epidemiology exist showing that relative risks are stable measures across many different populations.25
In our analysis, we assessed type 2 diabetes IRRs comparing higher regional deprivation to low regional deprivation. The results show that in Germany, type 2 diabetes incidence differs by regional deprivation and that the strength of the association increases with increasing age until the age of about 75 years. Furthermore, we did not find sex differences. The study adds new evidence regarding the association of type 2 diabetes incidence and regional deprivation for Germany and underpins the importance of public health measures to reduce social inequality. Ideally, future studies should also focus on the impact of regional deprivation on type 2 diabetes incidence in the older population.