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Background: The baby boomers are the first to be available to the German labour market up to the age of 67. A crucial premise for a long working life is good health. However, there is evidence that psychosocial working conditions are related to health. More and more employees report psychosocial stress at work. In addition, mental illness has become one of the main reasons for the entry into disability pension. Against this background this study considers the relationship between psychosocial work conditions and mental health exemplarily for two birth cohorts of the German baby boomers., Methods: For the analysis of the assumed relationships data of the lidA study "lidA - leben in der Arbeit - German Cohort Study on Work, Age and Health" is used (N=6 057). Mental health is assessed by the mental health scale of the SF-12. In addition, the items and the scales quantitative job requirements, work pace and support from colleagues from the Copenhagen Psychosocial Questionnaire (COPSOQ) are used. As further control variables cohort affiliation, level of education, occupational status and partnership are considered., Results: Multivariate analyses of the relations between quantitative job requirements, work pace and the experienced support from colleagues show significant relationship to mental health. The increasing frequency of the requirement to work quickly and increasing quantitative job demands are negatively associated to mental health. However, support of colleagues shows a positive relationship to mental health. These results are similarly observed for women and men., Conclusion: For the regarded group of the German babyboomers, employees at the threshold to higher working age, it is clearly shown that psychosocial working conditions are related to mental health. Since this group still has to work up to 18 years given a statutory retirement age of 67, psychosocial working conditions should rather be in the focus of occupational safety., (© Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart · New York.)

Objective: This article describes the current state of research concerning the fate of mentally ill people in the psychiatric hospital of Klagenfurt am Wörthersee during the era of National Socialism (NS). Sterilization based on the "Erbgesundheitsgesetz" (genetic health law) deportation to the Castle of Hartheim near Linz, transport to Klagenfurt and killing in the departments of the hospital are documented. This knowledge is to be given to the relatives., Method: Encouraged by diverse public work activities relatives of victims of NS euthanasia sought contact with the department to discover the fate of relatives. Touching meetings with the relatives took place., Results: Since January 2011 the contacting relatives, their motives and the meetings have been protocolled and in this study an attempt is made to give an initial characterization of these people., Conclusion: This approach of a reconstructive biographical work together with relatives of the victims is presented as a proactive duty of psychiatric institutions.

In the past a long-term comparison of suicides between the two German states has been prevented by the lack of published data on suicide mortality in the former GDR. These data are available now, showing a surprising similarity in the developments. The level of suicide mortality has been higher in the GDR from the beginning, but both countries experienced very similar reductions in the absolute und relative importance of suicide for overall mortality since the mid 1970's. A cohort analysis of suicide mortality is able to contribute to the explanation of the gap in suicide mortality between East and West Germany. The excess suicide mortality in East Germany is the result of a cohort effect and heavily concentrates on male and female birth cohorts from 1925 to 1945. For these cohorts the excess mortality due to suicide explains up to 25 percent of the total excess mortality compared with the same West German birth cohorts.

Age-Period-Cohort (APC) models have become a widely accepted method to analyse incidence and mortality rates of cancer or other diseases. In this paper we compare simple descriptive methods such as plotting age-specific rates and standardized rates with regression models in order to investigate mortality rates of Morbus Hodgkin's disease in Germany (West-Germany) between 1955 and 1989. With any of the approaches it can be seen that the mortality of Morbus Hodgkin's disease has been decreasing around 1970. Although APC-models allow some detailed investigation of the separate influence of the age, period and cohort effect, the results are difficult to interpret as there is no unique solution for the parameter estimates (identification problem of APC-models). For the mortality of Morbus Hodgkin's, the result of the APC-modelling shows that the decrease of mortality is overestimated if the cohort effect is not taken into consideration. We therefore conclude that the interpretation of the APC-model should be done in connection with other methods to avoid misinterpretation. The combination of both approaches will lead to a better understanding of the incidence or mortality patterns of cancer.