SummaryConvergence theory posits that health and health behaviors among immigrants converge to those of the native population over time. These studies typically, however, only focus on individual health (behavioral) indicators rather than immigrants’ health behavior in its entirety, severely limiting the generalizability of the obtained results. In this study, building on prior research measuring individual gender conformity in health behavior and exploiting the wealth of information on individual health behavior provided by NAKO data, we plan to assess for all immigrants in the sample the overall extent to which their health behavior resembles that of the native German population and the extent to which it resembles health behaviors observed for other immigrants from their country of origin. Equipped with these measures, and informed by various theories of acculturation and assimilation, we can provide an in-depth exploration of various micro-, meso- and macro level determinants of health behavioral adaptation among immigrants in Germany.

Keywords Acculturation Convergence-theory Health-behavior Migration Segmented-assimilation-theory Transnational-theory

InstitutionsUniversitätsklinikum Heidelberg, UKE Hamburg, Helmholtz Zentrum München, Heidelberg University