ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVES: The tasks of the Public Health Service include, amongst others, health promotion and disease prevention, health reporting and health planning. In many places, local or district health conferences (HCs) have been established to network and coordinate municipal stakeholders. HCs have been defined in the laws of the German states of Baden-Wurttemberg, Berlin, Hamburg, Hesse, and North Rhine-Westphalia. As systematic and comprehensive studies of HCs are not available, a descriptive analysis of the characteristic features, key topics and activities of HCs in selected states was performed. METHODS: Based on a non-reactive survey of the activities from 2013 to 2022, all HCs in four states (n=110) were covered. Data on structural features, topics and HC activities were gathered in a systematic approach. The topics these conferences dealt with were matched against the health objectives of the states. Following an internal verification of the results, univariate and bivariate analyses were performed for individual states, districts, and the year of establishment. RESULTS: Overall, topics frequently covered by the HCs are primary care, children's and adolescent health, health at old age, infection prevention and control, physical exercise and diet as well as addiction; in some cases, frequencies of these topics differed heavily among the states and municipalities. The topics covered by the HCs showed a strong association with the health objectives of the respective states. Health care is addressed more often in administrative districts (Landkreise) than in independent cities (kreisfreie Städte). Conferences established more recently (after 2011) exhibited greater activities than older ones in terms of plenary sessions and press releases. CONCLUSION: HCs are marked by a wide range of key topics which are based on health objectives of the respective states; however, noticeable differences exist between rural and urban areas. Conferences established more recently show a higher level of activity than older ones, which might point to sustainability issues under the current constraints. Whereas differences between rural and urban areas had already been noted for health-reporting activities, this was not the case for HC activities. The hypotheses derived from this descriptive analysis warrant further examination in order to ensure that the HCs create a sustainable impact.
