Community health
promotion and prevention

Our mission

Since 2019, the aim of the GKV-Bündnis für Gesundheit’s municipal funding programme has been to contribute to the systematic further development and strengthening of municipal health promotion and prevention as well as the promotion of equal health opportunities. Its focus is on supporting municipalities with problems and particular social and health challenges. It is important that particularly vulnerable target groups benefit more from health-promoting and preventive measures than previously. The programme’s two funding areas “Municipal structural development” and “Target group-specific interventions” are utilised by around 100 municipalities, and in some cases are also used in tandem. 

Prognos and Prof. Petra Kolip (Bielefeld University) and Prof. Julika Loss (RKI) are conducting the scientific evaluation on behalf of the GKV-Bündnis für Gesundheit. From 2020 to 2026, there will be four evaluation phases that will assess the initial situation, implementation, results, and sustainability in all supported municipalities. The aim of the evaluation is to gain insights into the conditions for success as well as the obstacles facing local health promotion and prevention. 

Interim results to form the ongoing implementation in the GKV Prevention Report 2023

The GKV Prevention Report 2023 provides information about the first interim results of the current investigation:

• In more than 60 municipalities, structures for the management and coordination of health promotion and prevention are being set up or expanded.
• Equally, municipal needs are being analysed, strategies developed, target groups and action priorities are being selected and measures are being planned.
• In most municipalities, a typical set-up of health-promoting structures is evident — a permanently established central body that works together with working groups and various other formats on a temporary and need-based basis.
• In addition to various municipal departments (health, social affairs, youth, senior citizens, and family), people from target group work, municipal policy, health insurance funds, interest groups and voluntary work are particularly involved.
• Furthermore, around 50 interventions for vulnerable target groups will be supported, most often for children and adolescents from families affected by mental health or addiction-related issues, and older people, followed by single parents and people from migrant backgrounds. This entails addressing a wide range of topics (including mental health, addiction prevention, resilience, as well as more general social, health and life skills) and combining various measures (e.g., meeting points, accessibility, group and advisory services), both of which assert holistic target group-oriented interventions.
• The way the municipalities surveyed so far rate their progress after two years of operation differs greatly — some municipalities still consider they have a long way to go, while most of them have already made good progress and some have almost reached their goals. 

The promotion of equal health opportunities, which is the overall objective of the programme, will only be possible in the long term if structures and measures can be built up sustainably. The evaluation has provided strong indications for the central role played by the people on the ground, who are committed to promoting health promotion and prevention in the municipalities. According to the evaluation team's assessment to date, it is particularly important to ensure the continuity of local staff as this in turn ensures the sustainability of developments.

Our approach

The evaluation uses a mix of methods consisting of interviews, online surveys, case and documentary analysis, to comprehensively determine the starting conditions, development processes, results, and the sustainability of funding. The survey design is adapted according to the individual project duration in the respective municipality.

Links and downloads

Prevention Report 2023 (PDF in German)

Project team: Nina Altmann, Andreas Heimer, Carsten Maday, Verena Stengel, Janko Vollmer

Latest update: 29.11.2023