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Article History

Received: 8 January 2024

Accepted: 22 November 2025

First Online: 17 December 2025

Declarations

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: The D80 + study was approved by the ethics committee of the Medical Faculty at the University of Cologne (Protocol #: 19-1387_1). Informed consent was obtained from all participants. All procedures were carried out in accordance with relevant guidelines and regulations.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 received detailed information about the sampling method, the 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). Please also note that an ethical statement for the DEAS study was not necessary because criteria for the need of 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).

: Not applicable.

: The authors declare no competing interests.