Conclusions
DISEASE, DISEASES, REGRESSIONS
The U10 and U11 examinations are important to close the gap in continuous medical care between the U9 at approximately age 5 and the first youth examination J1 at approximately age 13. Thus, screening is extended into the primary school age of the children and a continuous transition to the early detection examinations for adolescents is created. The J2 is especially important to close the gap between the J1 and adulthood; this can, inter alia, facilitate the transition to adult medicine. The results confirm that all three examinations lead to a significantly higher detection of diseases and result in a slightly earlier diagnosis and initiation of therapy. Furthermore, the present study indicates that the U10 and U11 are effective in terms of detection of diseases across all subgroups, i.e. irrespective of socio-economic status, nationality and region, and a higher number of diseases are diagnosed in IG than in CG for all strata examined. The same applies, with one exception, to the J2. The logistic regressions show that participation in the examinations has a significant influence on the detection of a diagnosis and the initiation of therapy, even when other factors are taken into account. The results on treatment initiation suggest that mild cases or early stages that do not yet require treatment are detected during screening; severe cases that already show symptoms are also detected without screening and subsequently treated. Notably, early diagnosis enables monitoring by the treating paediatrician, so that a disease may not develop or manifest itself at all.However, the costs for the U10, U11 and J2 examinations are not yet reimbursed by all health insurance funds and are not part of the standard care in Germany. One reason for this is that their effectiveness has not yet been adequately evaluated [