The possible explanations for this finding may stem from contamination of foods resulting from residential use (Melnyk et al. 2009) of pyrethroid insecticides in the South/Southeast region, regional differences in agricultural practices, or changes in pesticide use over time.
It is also known that there are institutional and regional differences in imaging practice habits [5, 6].
It is intriguing to observe that the use of antimony or manganese as a decolourant is not a strictly chronological progression, as the two technologies appear to overlap, and may perhaps represent regional differences in production practice.
This finding may thus reflect regional differences in provider practice patterns, commonly reported across many health domains [ 45].
First, the nationwide approach levels out the effect of regional differences in coding practice or incidence rates.
The historical separation of East and West Germany might have contributed to these regional differences in coding practice.
Such regional differences in obstetric practice are not necessarily explained by differences in socioeconomic status, women's preferences, or severity of co-morbidities.
However, our data did not support this assumption, just as it did not support common assumptions about regional differences in plagiarism practices.
We also examined regional differences in these practices.
