Health and social monitoring are important foundations of political decision making. In order to make statements about populations and subgroups different sources of information are generally used. The potential contribution which aggregated official health data of service providers can make is discussed in the exemplary context of the utilisation of medical rehabilitation of mental diseases. Age specific rates and age standardised ratios show a significantly increased utilisation of services for depression and somatoform disorders amongst women in general and the migrant population in particular. It is demonstrated that the interpretation of such results raises new research questions rather than providing explanations that could prove to be conducive for practical measures. In a methodological discussion it is stated that the reason for this has to be seen in the fact that important structures of action within the care system are concealed by the specific method of collecting and processing official health data. Nevertheless, conceivable interpretations are given regarding the psycho-social living conditions of large parts of the migrant population as well as their difficulties in the interaction with the medical system. This enables the formulation of a hypothetical framework for further research which could help to clarify statistical phenomena found in the official data of service providers.

Migration Mental health Data reporting Methodological study rehabilitation

patient care Germany patient monitoring social psychology methodology Research Design mental health middle aged Confidence Intervals Aged social interaction Mental Health Services Mental Disorders mental disease Humans male female Review high risk population population research adult migration Sex Factors Age Factors data analysis Transients and Migrants decision making somatoform disorder