2.3. Measures
SCHOLZ
For data collection, participants completed 2 different questionnaires at all 6 measurement time points: 1 to record socioeconomic data and 1 to assess health economic parameters. In the questionnaires, participants reported direct costs due to regular medication use, physician´s visits, check-ups and treatments, therapeutic appliances and remedies, inpatient and outpatient visits, ambulance services and care services retrospectively for the time period of the last 10 weeks.In a pilot study with 61 patients, the comprehensibility and accuracy of the health economic variables in the questionnaire were tested and verified, using their physicians’ data for comparison [A clear allocation of the costs proved to be difficult, as there is no consistent procedure in Germany. For this reason, Scholz et al. (2020) provided a suggestion for a standardized cost allocation for Germany, on which our approach for cost calculation is based (To precisely calculate costs, participants indicated their health insurance affiliation. Costs for the statutory health insurance fee were based on the physician’s fee scale for statutory insurance in Germany (EBM, “Einheitlicher Bewertungsmaßstab”), and costs for private insurance were based on the physician’s fee scale for private insurance in Germany (GoÄ, “Gebührenordnung für Ärzte”) [In addition, data on health behavior, quality of life and dietary intake (semiquantitative 3-day food protocols), as well as blood parameters (e.g., blood lipids, fasting glucose and HbA1c), anthropometric parameters (e.g., body weight and waist circumference) and vital parameters (resting heart rate, and blood pressure), were collected during all health check-ups, except for t