The integration of two health systems: Social stratification, work and health in East and West Germany

This is an analysis of system integration, social stratification and work for health status and health care in East and West Germany. It is based on aggregate data and representative survey data of random samples of 2554 adults in both subsystems. Findings show that there were marked differences in life-expectancy prior to unification. The integration of the two systems, which occurred almost totally with regard to terms of West German health care organization, shows adjustment problems in the East for the public Health-Care-Funds and few if any for ambulatory care. The work situation has an impact on health, but there are no significant differences for East versus West. Social stratification variables show an influence on subjective health status for education (East) and for income, social status (West), while physician utilization (despite a preference of specialists by those with higher status) is not significantly determined by stratification variables in either East or West Germany. Beyond the central focus on work and stratification determinants a major finding pertains to a comparatively worse health situation for the aged and for women in what was the former East Germany. System models of Capitalism versus Socialism fit the results and recent history of the two systems to only a limited degree, as the West German corporate health system shows clear limits in following free market principles. The East German system, regardless of its centralized organization and move towards a socialist system, never fully abandoned the traditional model of German health care. Unlike the East German health system, that of West Germany, with its general expansion to 92% of the population, shows an increasing effect for social redistribution. The latter may be a reason why standard indicators of social stratification show less of an impact on health and health care than expected, while conditions at work clearly determine the health of people--the latter being the case in both the former East and West Germany.work situation social stratification East-West systems health status health care

Reversible Switching of Icing Properties on Pyroelectric Polyvenylidene Fluoride Thin Film Coatings

In this work a new approach for ice repellent coatings is presented. It was shown that the coatings cause a decrease or increase in the freezing temperature of water depending on the alignment of an external electric field. For this coating the commonly used pyroelectric polymer polyvenylidene fluoride was deposited as a thin film on glass. The samples were dip-coated and subsequently thermally-treated at 140 °C for 1 h. All samples were found to cause a reduction of the icing temperature of water on their surface in comparison to uncoated glass. On several samples an external electric field was applied during this thermal treatment. The field application was found to cause a remarkable reduction of the icing temperature where a maximum lowering of the freezing temperature of 3 K compared to uncoated glass could be achieved. The actual achieved reduction of the icing temperature was observed to depend on the polarity of the field applied during the thermal treatment. Furthermore, a repetition of the thermal treatment under oppositely directed electric fields led to a switchable freezing behavior of water according to the direction of the applied field. With an increasing number of cycles of switching of the icing property a slight training effect towards lower freezing temperatures was observed