The objective of the National Health Survey for Children and Adolescents has been to produce the first sets of representative data on health indicators including those of children and adolescents from migrant families. To ensure an adequate involvement of migrants corresponding to their percentage in the demographic profile, account must be taken of particular features in respondent behaviour. Up to now analyses of the respondent behaviour of migrants have been limited to surveys based on the 'oral interview' format. The pilot study format employed by the National Health Survey for Children and Adolescents for the first time produces findings relative to the willingness of migrants to participate in health surveys containing medical survey components. In comparison to "pure" questionnaire-based surveys, the pilot study reveals the role played by additional hurdles to, and motives for, participation which are partly cultural in origin and partly related to the specific condition of being a migrant. Such factors must also be taken into account in designing the course of the survey and in considering questions of migrant accessibility. © Georg Thieme Verlag Stuttgart.

Migration Non-responder orientation Health survey for children and adolescents Migrant-specific procedure Respondent behaviour

Germany demography Bias (Epidemiology) human immigration health status pediatrics Health Surveys refusal to participate interview Humans examination Adolescent Minority Groups male female Infant Child, Preschool Review questionnaire cultural factor child health Health Status Indicators Adolescent Medicine Emigration and Immigration Pilot Projects Data Collection Child health survey