Kayvan Bozorgmehr
Biographic Data
| ID | 4720655 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Kayvan Bozorgmehr |
| GIVEN NAMES | Kayvan |
| FAMILY NAME | Bozorgmehr |
| SIGNATURE | BOZORGMEHR K |
| AFFILIATIONS | Bielefeld University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-1411-1209 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 57 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 15 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 57 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2009 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
Transforming Health Systems to Embrace Human Migration
Nurse-led models of care and their potential to improve primary healthcare for refugees in Germany
BACKGROUND: Fragmented health systems can lead to over-, under-, or misuse of services. Specific challenges arise for newly arrived population groups, such as refugees, who encounter barriers to health services. These include legal restrictions and language discordance with service providers, that further exacerbate these issues. Although nurses can play an important role in improving the response of the health system, little is known about their…
Migration trajectories, uncertainty and health
BACKGROUND: Migration trajectories are complex, non-linear movements, including periods of immobility, secondary migration, return and psychosocial changes. A defining feature of these trajectories is uncertainty, resulting from incomplete place-based knowledge and the unpredictable future. We examined how migration trajectories and associated uncertainties have been conceptualised and operationalised in health-related research. METHODS: We condu…
WHO launches global network of institutes to strengthen capacity for health inequality monitoring
This article introduces the global WHO-managed Health Inequality Monitoring Network, which is dedicated to strengthening and expanding health inequality monitoring practices at global, regional and country levels. Launched in 2025, the Health Inequality Monitoring Network consists of 12 inaugural institutional members, represented by over 140 affiliated individuals spanning all world regions. The Network aims to: strengthen capacities for health …
US divestment in global health
The decisions of the US administration under Donald Trump in January 2025 to divest from many development activities have severely disrupted the state of affairs in global health. We analyse the extent of this disruption from two perspectives. First, we show that about 45 out of every 100 dollars spent on global health from 2019 to 2022 came from the US. Using data on bilateral official development assistance for health from the US, we identify r…
Primary healthcare models for refugees involving nurses
Impact of social isolation on mental health changes by socio-economic status
SES and social isolation critically influenced mental health changes, with substantial variability across subpopulations. Targeted interventions addressing SES inequities and fostering social connections are essential for mitigating mental health disparities, particularly among low SES groups, migrants, and refugees
Post-migration stress mediates associations between potentially traumatic peri-migration experiences and mental health among Middle Eastern refugees in Germany
On their way to host countries, refugees are often exposed to severe adversity, including cumulative experiences of fraud, extortion, robbery, detention, and shipwrecks, as well as prolonged, life-threatening small boat crossings. However, little research has examined the long-term impact of such peri-migration stressors on subsequent stress and mental health after arrival. This study explored how cumulative exposure to potentially traumatic even…
Migration-induced subjective social mobility and its associations with self-rated mental and general health
Health system resilience in the context of forced migration
These findings suggest that improving health system resilience requires a more comprehensive and system-wide approach to obtaining, integrating, and using knowledge; as well as more clearly defined roles, particularly regarding coordination; and overarching guidelines that can inform a coherent response strategy
“I don ́t put people into boxes, but…” A free-listing exercise exploring social categorisation of asylum seekers by professionals in two German reception centres
Newly arriving asylum seekers in Germany mostly live in large reception centres, depending on professionals in most aspects of their daily lives. The legal basis for the provision of goods and services allows for discretionary decisions. Given the potential impact of social categorisation on professionals’ decisions, and ultimately access to health and social services, we explore the categories used by professionals. We ask of what nature these c…
Housing and health
Housing is an important social determinant of health, but the perspectives of asylum seekers and refugees (ASR) in large, centralised reception centres remain under-researched. We therefore sought to examine which housing aspects in reception centres are deemed relevant for health by ASR in Germany. Based on 47 interviews with 42 ASR in Germany originating from three different studies, we conducted a secondary qualitative analysis. We mapped inte…
Effect of area-level socioeconomic deprivation on mental and physical health
Existing studies on contextual health effects struggle to account for compositional bias, limiting causal interpretation. We use refugee dispersal in Germany as a natural experiment to study the effect of area-level socioeconomic deprivation on mental and physical health, while considering the potential mediating role of neighbourhood characteristics. Refugees subject to dispersal (n = 1466) are selected from a nation-wide longitudinal refugee st…
Translating restrictive law into practice
Health care restrictions for asylum seekers are implemented through an organizational linking of care provision and government administration, resulting in a bureaucratization of practice. Power structures at this intersection of health and migration policy, that are uncommon in other parts of the health system are thereby normalized. Outpatient clinics provide low-threshold access to health services, but paradoxically they may unintentionally st…
Impact of non-pharmaceutical interventions on Covid-19 incidence and deaths
In the absence of pre-existing immunity, vaccines or treatment options, our results suggest that the observed implementation of different categories of NPIs, showed varied associations with SARS-CoV-2 incidence and deaths across regions, and varied associations across waves. These relationships were consistent across components of NPIs derived from two policy trackers (CoV-PPM and OxCGRT)
Local political climate and spill-over effects on refugee and migrant health
The health of refugees and migrants is determined by a wide range of factors. Among these, the local political climate in the postmigration phase is an important determinant which operates at interpersonal and institutional levels. We present a conceptual framework to advance theory, measurement and empirical evidence related to the small-area factors which shape and determine the local political climate, as these may translate into variations in…
Exploring contextual effects of post-migration housing environment on mental health of asylum seekers and refugees
Asylum seekers and refugees (ASR) in Germany are dispersed quasi-randomly to state-provided, collective accommodation centres. We aimed to analyse contextual effects of post-migration housing environment on their mental health. We drew a balanced random sample of 54 from 1 938 accommodation centres with 70 634 ASR in Germany’s 3rd largest federal state. Individual-level data on depression and anxiety as well as sociodemographic- and asylum-relate…
Der subjektive Sozialstatus im Asylkontext
Der subjektive Sozialstatus (SSS) ist mit physischer und psychischer Gesundheit assoziiert. In dieser qualitativen Interviewstudie wurde exploriert, welche Faktoren den SSS asylsuchender Menschen bedingen. Der Rechtsstatus war ein zentraler Faktor für den niedrigen SSS der Befragten. Zugleich akzentuiert Flucht die Dynamik und Pluralität des Konstrukts, das abhängig von Referenzrahmen und Indikatoren ist. Für die Befragten waren unterschiedliche …
Inequalities in health system responsiveness among asylum seekers and refugees
Global migration has sparked renewed interest in Universal Health Coverage in high-income countries. However, quality of care has received little attention. This study uses the concept of responsiveness to study quality of care for asylum seekers and refugees (ASR) in Germany and identify inequalities among this group. We report results from a population-based, cross-sectional health monitoring survey in Germany’s third-largest federal state usin…
Comparable worth of life for all? Conducting and disseminating health economic evaluations for refugees in Germany
Comparative health economic evaluation is based on premise of being able to compare the worth of a year of life lived in full quality across different patients, population groups, settings and interventions. Given the rising numbers of forcibly displaced people, the nexus of economics, migration and health has emerged as a central theme in recent conceptual and empirical approaches. However, some of the assumptions made in conventional economic a…
Trends and Changes in Socio-Economic Inequality in Self-Rated Health among Migrants and Non-Migrants
Socio-economic inequalities in health may change over time, and monitoring such change is relevant to inform adequate policy responses. We aimed to quantify socio-economic inequalities in health among people with direct, indirect and without migration background in Germany and to assess temporal trends and changes between 1995 and 2017. Using nationally representative survey data from the Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP), we quantified absolute and re…
From Research into Practice
Health data of refugees and asylum seekers (ASR) is not routinely collected in Germany. Based on health data of ASR collected in 2018 in regional accommodation centres, we developed a dashboard to estimate regional burden of disease in Baden-Wuerttemberg, Germany. We aimed to find out how scientific data can support actors involved in healthcare planning for ASR in Germany and, within this scope, to explore how healthcare planning is conducted in…
Health Status and Access to Healthcare for Uninsured Migrants in Germany
Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) regularly report data on their work with uninsured migrants (UM) within a (so-called) parallel health care system. The role and involvement of public authorities therein have yet been underrepresented in research. Our aim was to gain a better understanding of public authorities' role in the parallel health care system and their view of the health situation of UM. We conducted qualitative semi-structured inter…
Inequalities in access to healthcare by local policy model among newly arrived refugees
ASR using the HV are disadvantaged in their access to healthcare compared to ASR having either an EHC or regular access. Given equal need, they use specialist services less. The identified inequalities constitute inequities in access to healthcare that could be reduced by policy change from HV to the EHC model during the initial 18 months waiting time, or by granting ASR regular healthcare access upon arrival. Potential patterns of differences in…
Sars-CoV-2 attack rate in reception and accommodation centres for asylum seekers during the first wave
Mass quarantine is associated with higher attack rates, and appears to be a counter-productive containment measure in overcrowded camps, but further research with individual-level data is required to rule out residual confounding. Despite available vaccines, reception centres and refugee camps should follow the available guidelines on COVID-19 response and refrain from mass quarantine if physical distancing cannot be guaranteed
Trade liberalization and tuberculosis incidence
BACKGROUND: Trade liberalization is promoted by the World Trade Organization (WTO) through a complex architecture of binding trade agreements. This type of trade, however, has the potential to modify the upstream and proximate determinants of tuberculosis (TB) infection. We aimed to analyse the association between trade liberalization and TB incidence in 22 high-burden TB countries between 1990 and 2010. METHODS: and findings A longitudinal multi…
Sars-CoV-2 among migrants and forcibly displaced populations
The economic and health consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic pose a particular threat to vulnerable groups, such as migrants, particularly forcibly displaced populations. The aim of this review is (i) to synthesize the evidence on risk of infection and transmission among migrants, refugees, asylum seekers and internally displaced populations, and (ii) the effect of lockdown measures on these populations. We searched MEDLINE and WOS, preprint ser…
Maternal mental healthcare needs of refugee women in a State Registration and Reception Centre in Germany
Pregnant refugees and new mothers are at high risk of developing mental health problems. Previous research has highlighted an increase in adverse pre-, peri- and postpartum outcomes in refugee women and their newborns. This descriptive study aimed to present the characteristics and needs of refugee women who attended a psychosocial walk-in clinic addressing pregnant refugees' and new mothers' maternity mental healthcare needs in a state registrat…
Subjective social status mobility and mental health of asylum seekers and refugees
ASR experiencing downward SSS mobility present poorer mental health compared to those experiencing no change in SSS. Early integration efforts and intersectoral measures to counter social downward mobility could prevent poor mental health among ASR
Restricted entitlements and access to health care for refugees and immigrants
Social disparities in Disease Management Programmes for coronary heart disease in Germany
BACKGROUND: Disease Management Programmes (DMPs) aim to improve effectiveness and equity of care but may suffer from selective enrolment. We analysed social disparities in DMP enrolment among elderly patients with coronary heart disease (CHD) in Germany, taking into account contextual effects at municipality and primary care practice levels. METHODS: Cross-sectional analysis of effects of educational attainment and regional deprivation on physici…
Sars-CoV-2 attack rate in reception and accommodation centres for asylum seekers during the first wave
Mass quarantine is associated with higher attack rates, and appears to be a counter-productive containment measure in overcrowded camps, but further research with individual-level data is required to rule out residual confounding. Despite available vaccines, reception centres and refugee camps should follow the available guidelines on COVID-19 response and refrain from mass quarantine if physical distancing cannot be guaranteed
What role does adolescent neighborhood play for adult health? A cross-classified multilevel analysis of life course models in Northern Sweden
How to stop public health conferences becoming trade fairs
Reflecting the new wave of global public health, which now seems to be finally reoriented towards embracing its social mission and responsibilities, the 12th World Congress on Public Health, recently held in Istanbul, dedicated many of its sessions to ethics and the right to health. Indeed, the Congress title, 'Making a Difference in Global Public Health: Education, Research and Practice', sounded like a call to action. But faultless theory and s…
Rethinking the 'global' in global health
BACKGROUND: Current definitions of 'global health' lack specificity about the term 'global'. This debate presents and discusses existing definitions of 'global health' and a common problem inherent therein. It aims to provide a way forward towards an understanding of 'global health' while avoiding redundancy. The attention is concentrated on the dialectics of different concepts of 'global' in their application to malnutrition; HIV, tuberculosis &…
The 'global health' education framework
BACKGROUND: In the past decades, the increasing importance of and rapid changes in the global health arena have provoked discussions on the implications for the education of health professionals. In the case of Germany, it remains yet unclear whether international or global aspects are sufficiently addressed within medical education. Evaluation challenges exist in Germany and elsewhere due to a lack of conceptual guides to develop, evaluate or as…
Relationship between financial speculation and food prices or price volatility
There is an unresolved debate about the potential effects of financial speculation on food prices and price volatility. Germany’s largest financial institution and leading global investment bank recently decided to continue investing in agricultural commodities, stating that there is little empirical evidence to support the notion that the growth of agricultural-based financial products has caused price increases or volatility. The statement is s…
The global health concept of the German government
Recognising global health as a rapidly emerging policy field, the German federal government recently released a national concept note for global health politics (July 10, 2013). As the German government could have a significant impact on health globally by making a coherent, evidence-informed, and long-term commitment in this field, we offer an initial appraisal of the strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities for development recognised in this do…
Trade liberalization and tuberculosis incidence
BACKGROUND: Trade liberalization is promoted by the World Trade Organization (WTO) through a complex architecture of binding trade agreements. This type of trade, however, has the potential to modify the upstream and proximate determinants of tuberculosis (TB) infection. We aimed to analyse the association between trade liberalization and TB incidence in 22 high-burden TB countries between 1990 and 2010. METHODS: and findings A longitudinal multi…
Analysing horizontal equity in enrolment in Disease Management Programmes for coronary heart disease in Germany 2008–2010
Need-standardised DMP enrolment was fairly equitable across educational levels. Deprivation-related inequities in DMP enrolment favoured women living in less deprived areas relative to those living in areas with higher deprivation. Further research is needed to gain a better understanding of the mechanisms that contribute to deprivation-related horizontal inequities in DMP enrolment among women
Social disparities in Disease Management Programmes for coronary heart disease in Germany
BACKGROUND: Disease Management Programmes (DMPs) aim to improve effectiveness and equity of care but may suffer from selective enrolment. We analysed social disparities in DMP enrolment among elderly patients with coronary heart disease (CHD) in Germany, taking into account contextual effects at municipality and primary care practice levels. METHODS: Cross-sectional analysis of effects of educational attainment and regional deprivation on physici…
Restricted entitlements and access to health care for refugees and immigrants
How Do Countries’ Health Information Systems Perform in Assessing Asylum Seekers’ Health Situation? Developing a Health Information Assessment Tool on Asylum Seekers (Hiatus) and Piloting It in Two Eu…
Background: Accurate data on the health status, health behaviour and access to health care of asylum seekers is essential, but such data is lacking in many European countries. We hence aimed to: (a) develop and pilot-test an instrument that can be used to compare and benchmark the country health information systems (HIS) with respect to the ability to assess the health status and health care situation of asylum seekers and (b) present the results…
What role does adolescent neighborhood play for adult health? A cross-classified multilevel analysis of life course models in Northern Sweden
Regional deprivation is associated with the distribution of vulnerable asylum seekers
BACKGROUND: Newly arriving asylum seekers in many European Union countries are assigned a place of residence based on administrative quota. This may have important consequences for the exposure to contextual health risks. We assessed the association between regional deprivation and the distribution of asylum seekers in Germany considered as vulnerable (women, children 64 years) because of their increased health needs. METHODS: Using nationally re…
Global, regional, and national age-sex-specific mortality for 282 causes of death in 195 countries and territories, 1980–2017
BACKGROUND: Global development goals increasingly rely on country-specific estimates for benchmarking a nation's progress. To meet this need, the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) 2016 estimated global, regional, national, and, for selected locations, subnational cause-specific mortality beginning in the year 1980. Here we report an update to that study, making use of newly available data and improved methods. GBD …
Measuring performance on the Healthcare Access and Quality Index for 195 countries and territories and selected subnational locations
BACKGROUND: A key component of achieving universal health coverage is ensuring that all populations have access to quality health care. Examining where gains have occurred or progress has faltered across and within countries is crucial to guiding decisions and strategies for future improvement. We used the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study 2016 (GBD 2016) to assess personal health-care access and quality with the Healthc…
Measuring progress from 1990 to 2017 and projecting attainment to 2030 of the health-related Sustainable Development Goals for 195 countries and territories
BACKGROUND: Efforts to establish the 2015 baseline and monitor early implementation of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) highlight both great potential for and threats to improving health by 2030. To fully deliver on the SDG aim of "leaving no one behind", it is increasingly important to examine the health-related SDGs beyond national-level estimates. As part of the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study 2017 (GBD 2…
Early evaluation of experiences of health care providers in reception centers with a patient-held personal health record for asylum seekers
BACKGROUND: The provision of high-quality medical care to asylum seekers represents a key challenge in many countries of the European Union. Especially continuity of care has been difficult to achieve as the migrant trajectory moves asylum seekers across and within European countries. Patient-held personal health records (PHR) have been proposed to facilitate the transfer of medical history between health sectors and providers, but so far there i…
Using information communication technology to identify deficits in rural health care
BACKGROUND: In August 2014, the Centre for the Studies of Equity and Governance in Health Systems (CEGSS) in Guatemala launched an online platform, which facilitates complaints about health services via text messages. The aim is to collect, systemise and forward such complaints to relevant institutions, and to create a data pool on perceived deficits of health care in rural Guatemala. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate if the online platform is an accepted, …
If you can, change this system” -Pregnant asylum seekers‘ perceptions on social determinants and material circumstances affecting their health whilst living in state-provided accommodation in Germany …
Pregnant asylum seekers and new mothers living in state-provided accommodation experienced major restrictions related to material circumstances in this study. Key results identified housing and neighbourhood quality, consumption potential and nutrition as social determinants of health which women perceived to adversely affect their health, especially during pregnancy and early motherhood
Infectious-disease Screening and Vaccination for Refugees and Asylum Seekers Entering Europe in 2015–16
In 2015, more than 1 million asylum seekers and refugees arrived in Europe. Information on how European countries addressed the prevention and control of infectious diseases among these populations during and after this period is limited. This study is based on 27 semi-structured interviews conducted with first-line staff and health officials in May–June 2016 in first-entry countries (Greece/Italy), transit countries (Croatia/Slovenia) and destin…
Towards inclusionary and diversity-sensitive public health
The German government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic has been predominantly considered wellfounded. Still, the practice of mass quarantine in reception centres and asylum camps has been criticised for its discrimination of refugees and asylum seekers. Building on the concept of othering, this article argues that processes of othering are structurally anchored in German asylum regulations and they have further pervaded public health measures …
Economic arguments in migrant health policymaking
Welfare states around the world restrict access to public healthcare for some migrant groups. Formal restrictions on migrants’ healthcare access are often justified with economic arguments; for example, as a means to prevent excess costs and safeguard scarce resources. However, existing studies on the economics of migrant health policies suggest that restrictive policies increase rather than decrease costs. This evidence has largely been ignored …
Public-private knowledge transfer and access to medicines
Measuring deterioration of small-area housing environment
Housing is an important health determinant, in particular for asylum seekers and refugees (ASR) living in state-provided accommodation and struggling for residential autonomy. However, few validated objective measurement tools exist to measure housing quality in the sense of the deterioration of the housing environment. We aimed to construct and validate an instrument to enable resource-efficient monitoring of and health research on such housing …
Predictors of Asylum Seekers’ Health Care Utilization in the Early Phase of Resettlement
Low-threshold, culture-sensitive treatment offers for asylum seekers should be established in the early phase after migration. General practitioners should be a central hub for further referrals to disorder-specific treatments
Preventable admissions and emergency-department-visits in pediatric asylum-seeking and non-asylum-seeking patients
Admissions due to ambulatory-care-sensitive conditions are comparable in asylum-seeking and non-asylum-seeking children, suggesting few delayed presentations to ambulatory care facilities. Strategies to prevent non-urgent visits at pediatric emergency department facilities are needed
Medicine (39 works) · Migration, Health and Trauma (34 works) · Political science (27 works) · Refugee (27 works) · Public health (20 works) · Health care (19 works) · Sociology (19 works) · Environmental health (18 works) · Geography (17 works) · Psychology (16 works)