SummaryDeaths of despair (deaths caused by suicide, alcohol and drug abuse) have increased in the United States and the United Kingdom over the last three decades. Germany, as a special case of economic transformation between East and West in the course of reunification, is still characterised by relatively large socioeconomic differences. The impact of the social gradient on "deaths of despair" in Germany has not been well studied. We use the cause-specific mortality data of the German National Cohort (NAKO) between 2014 and 2022. SES is derived by following the ISCED-97 classification, also from NAKO. The main finding should confirm that people with a low SES are more likely to die from 'deaths of despair', regardless of whether they lived in East or West Germany. This also underlines the importance of the social gradient for "deaths of despair" in Germany.

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InstitutionsKompetenzzentrum Mortalitäts-Follow-UP, Bundesinstitut für Bevölkerungsforschung, Center for Population and Health e.V.