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Article History

Received: 1 November 2017

Accepted: 10 October 2018

First Online: 25 October 2018

Ethics approval and consent to participate

: Please note that an ethical statement for the DEAS study was not necessary as the criteria for requiring an ethical statement were not met (risk for the respondents, lack of information about the aims of the study, examination of patients). This is in accordance with the German Research Foundation-guidelines (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, DFG) available at:(only available in German language).The German Centre of Gerontology (DZA) decided that an ethical statement was not necessary. It is worth noting that the DEAS study has a permanent advisory board. Prior to each wave of data collection, the permanent advisory board receives detailed information about the sampling method, consent to participate and the instruments used in the DEAS study. The permanent advisory board concluded that the DEAS study did not need approval from an ethics committee. This procedure is in concordance with local guidelines. Please also see the RatSWD (Principles and Review Procedures of Research Ethics in the Social and Economic Sciences):, page 28 (only available in German language).Prior to the interview, written informed consent was given by all participants of the study.

: Not applicable.

: The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

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