Jens Klein

University Medical Center Hamburg - Eppendorf · Department of Medical Sociology

Purpose This study aims to assess whether cancer-specific knowledge (CSK) is associated with membership in a cancer peer support group (PSG) and other factors. Methods A cross-sectional study investigated the CSK of 1121 cancer patients of various entities across Germany. CSK was measured with the BCKS-14, a 14-item knowledge instrument which was...

Background: Peer support is increasingly recognized as crucial for improving health and psychosocial outcomes in oncological care. The integration of cancer self-help groups (SHGs) into cancer care facilities has gained importance in recent years. Yet, there is a lack of knowledge of the extent and quality of cooperation between cancer care facili...

Purpose This study aims to introduce the development and psychometric properties of a brief generic cancer knowledge scale for patients (BCKS-10) that includes different elements of knowledge and skills (terminology, diagnosis, treatment, prevention, and numeracy). Although cancer knowledge is a central dimension of cancer literacy, most previous s...

Während gesundheitliche Ungleichheiten in der deutschen Medizinsoziologie seit Längerem verbreitet beforscht werden, gibt es von Vertreter:innen des Faches vergleichsweise wenige systematische Studien zu sozialen Ungleichheiten in der gesundheitlichen Versorgung. Das Hamburger Institut für Medizinische Soziologie hat vor etwa 10 Jahren begonnen, si...

Background There is evidence that perceived urgency of medical complaints is associated with emergency care utilization. Patients’ perception of urgency can differ from physicians’ assessment. This study explored public perceptions of urgency of severe cases of COVID-19 and inflammatory gastrointestinal disease and analyzed variations in perception...

Objectives To examine variations in intended healthcare utilisation in severe cases of COVID-19 and inflammatory gastrointestinal disease (IGD). Design Representative cross-sectional telephone survey. Setting and participants 1207 randomly drawn adults of the city of Hamburg, Germany, between November 2020 and January 2021. Outcome measures Diff...

Background: Knowledge and beliefs about health and health care are part of the general concept of health literacy. Studies demonstrated that large parts of the population report inadequate health literacy. There are only few studies specifically addressing public knowledge and beliefs about emergency care. We examine magnitude and social variations...

Objective Empowerment is critical for cancer patients to make informed choices, to manage medication, and to navigate through the oncological care system. Cancer peer support provides patients with information, emotional relief and may promote empowerment. This paper provides a systematic review of the literature examining the impact of cancer peer...

Background: This study examines if education, income, and loneliness are associated with physical functioning and optimism in an ageing population in Germany. Furthermore, time trends of physical functioning and optimism as well as of associations with social inequality and loneliness are analyzed. Methods: The German Ageing Survey (DEAS), a longit...

Objectives To identify factors that predict the quality of life (QoL) of patients with dementia in acute hospitals and to analyse if a special care concept can increase patients’ QoL. Design A non-randomised, case–control study including two internal medicine wards from hospitals in Hamburg, Germany. Setting and participants In all, 526 patients...

Zusammenfassung Analysen zu sozial ungleich verteilter Inanspruchnahme gesundheitlicher Versorgung in Deutschland ergeben ein differenziertes Bild in Abhängigkeit des jeweiligen Versorgungsbereiches. Insbesondere Fachärzte und verschiedene Präventionsangebote werden verstärkt von Personen mit höherem sozioökonomischem Status in Anspruch genommen. S...

Background Despite the growing number of people with migrant background in Germany, a systematic review about their utilization of health care and differences to the non-migrant population is lacking. By covering various sectors of health care and migrant populations, the review aimed at giving a general overview and identifying special areas of po...

Purpose: To examine income-related disparities in health-related quality of life (HRQOL) over a one-year period after surgery (radical prostatectomy) and its contributory factors in a longitudinal perspective. Evidence of associations between income and HRQOL among patients with prostate cancer (PCa) is sparse and their explanations still remain u...

Objectives: This study examines social inequalities in the utilization of medical rehabilitation, complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) and psychosocial support programs among patients with prostate and breast cancer after surgery. Method: A prospective, multicenter observational study was conducted. Subjects were 483 patients after primary...

Objectives To identify the associations between socioeconomic status (SES) and health-related quality of life (HRQOL) and the explanatory contribution of disease, patient and healthcare factors among patients with prostate cancer. Design Prospective cohort study. Setting and participants In all, 246 patients from 2 hospitals in Hamburg/Germany who...

Welche Modelle zur Analyse von sozialen Einflüssen auf die gesundheitliche Versorgung gibt es? Was sind Versorgungsungleichheiten? Wie stark sind Ungleichheiten im Zugang, in der Inanspruchnahme und in der Qualität der gesundheitlichen Versorgung in Deutschland ausgeprägt? Wie hängen soziale Ressourcen und Belastungen mit der gesundheitlichen Verso...

There is controversy about social disparities in healthcare services in Germany, but a differentiated analysis regarding various dimensions of healthcare is lacking. This narrative review intends to summarize conceptually the current state of research and draw subsequent conclusions. Separated into access, utilization and quality, the findings of s...

Although survival rates after prostate cancer diagnosis have improved in the past two decades, survival analyses regarding the socioeconomic status (SES) suggest inequalities indicating worse prognosis for lower SES groups. An overview of the current literature is lacking and moreover, there is an ongoing discussion about the underlying causes but...

Background: Social inequalities in health care utilization are used as a potential explanatory factor for the social gradient in morbidity and mortality. The associations between socioeconomic factors and the usage of health services were documented several times but often discussed in an undifferentiated way in Germany. Therefore, this review dist...

Objectives: Presenteeism is determined as turning up at work despite ill health. In the last decade this phenomenon became much more relevant and will be a central topic for future research in workplace health, health promotion and productivity loss. Compared to absenteeism research data about presenteeism are comparatively rare. Especially employ...

Socioeconomic status (SES) is an important determinant of population health. Explanatory approaches on how SES determines health have so far included numerous factors, amongst them psychosocial factors such as social relationships. However, it is unclear whether social relationships can help explain socioeconomic differences in general subjective h...

This study explores the contribution of social relations to explain inequalities in self-rated health in a changing north-eastern German region. So far, there are only few studies that analysed the mediating effects of social relations in a longitudinal design. We used data from the Study of Health in Pomerania (SHIP) consisting of 3,300 randomly s...

ABSTRACT: Social relations have repeatedly been found to be an important determinant of health. However, it is unclear whether the association between social relations and health is consistent throughout different status groups. It is likely that health effects of social relations vary in different status groups, as stated in the hypothesis of diff...

Little is known about the association between job stress and job performance among surgeons, although physicians' well-being could be regarded as an important quality indicator. This paper examines associations between psychosocial job stress and perceived health care quality among German clinicians in surgery. Survey data of 1,311 surgeons from 48...

Burnout is highly prevalent among clinicians but there is not much known about the association between burnout and quality of care. In this paper, burnout, perceived quality of care and medical errors among German clinicians in surgery are explored. Data were collected during 2008 by a cross-sectional, standardized mail survey. and A total of 1311...

The aim of the study is to analyse the association between psychosocial stress at work and burnout among clinicians in surgery in Germany. For the conceptualisation of work stress the demand-control model (job strain) and the effort-reward imbalance model (ERI) were used. Based on a stratified probability sample a mail survey of 1 311 clinicians fr...

The aim of this paper is to analyze psychosocial stress in the workplace among hospital doctors working in surgical fields in Germany with the aid of the demand-control model, the effort-reward imbalance model, and selected additional indicators. A written questionnaire was answered by a stratified random sample consisting of 1311 hospital doctors...