[Children's daycare and schools-a challenge for local health services in the pandemic]. / Lebenswelten Kitas und Schulen ­ Herausforderungen für die Gesundheitsämter in der Pandemie.

Local public health services in Germany usually include a local organizational unit that is in charge of the healthcare of children, youths, and families (KJGD). Major tasks are defined in the federal laws for the public health service emphasizing different types of activities in daycare units, schools, and community living environments. Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the activities of the KJGD have clearly changed. This article will provide a review of these tasks during the pandemic on the basis of interviews with KJGD administrations in 11 communities of the federal state North Rhine-Westphalia in October 2020.Typically, the KJGD is deeply involved in infection prevention in daycare facilities and schools by providing contact tracing, swab collection, guidance, crisis committee participation, quarantine survey, and data capture. The classic tasks had to be entirely discontinued in some areas, or at least strongly limited. The affected areas include occupational medicine, medical reports, school entry examinations for children, assessment of special education needs, health reporting, cooperation with child protection and early intervention, outbreak management for other infectious diseases, and the closing of immunization gaps.The consequences of discontinuing the original tasks, e.g., missing school entry examinations, cannot be predicted; resumption of these activities is essential. On behalf of municipal services of general interest in the sense of public health (in all policies), the KJGD makes a remarkable contribution to ensuring that children and youths not only stay physically healthy and far from infections but are also promoted in their individual development and participation.

[Demand-driven communication strategy of the Federal Centre for Health Education (BZgA) during the COVID-19 pandemic]. / Bedarfsbezogene Kommunikationsstrategie der Bundeszentrale für gesundheitliche Aufklärung (BZgA) während der COVID-19-Pandemie.

With the declaration of a pandemic situation of national significance by the German Bundestag, the Federal Centre for Health Education (BZgA) is fulfilling its task of providing information for understanding the pandemic situation and implementing the necessary protective measures in a clear manner throughout Germany within the framework of the adapted National Pandemic Plan COVID-19. The BZgA targets its information according to the needs of specific groups and actively involves multipliers.In order to incorporate the perspectives of the population as well as those of prevention and health promotion professionals into the services developed by the BZgA, given the particularly initial low level of knowledge in the population, various methods and data sources were used: the COVID-19 Snapshot Monitoring (COSMO) population survey, the monitoring of citizens' enquiries via telephone and e­mail to the BZgA, surveys of counselling professionals from nationwide telephone and online counselling centres, surveys of health professionals in early help (NZFH) and interdisciplinary practice expert hearings. Beyond providing pure information, practical and everyday offers should be developed and provided according to WHO guidelines and evidence-based criteria of effective communication in order to support the competences for a gradual adaptation to a "new normality".The paper describes the data-based and evidence-informed development process of communication content and offers, their dissemination via existing websites and channels for other topics as well as their integration into the new online platform www.zusammengegencorona.de . This demonstrates how demand-driven and target group-specific communication offers can be implemented beyond the classic and proven campaign appearance.

[Public trust in institutions in the first half of the Corona pandemic: findings from the COVID-19 Snapshot Monitoring (COSMO) project]. / Vertrauen der Bevölkerung in staatliche Institutionen im ersten Halbjahr der Coronapandemie: Erkenntnisse aus dem Projekt COVID-19 Snapshot Monitoring (COSMO).

BACKGROUND: In the coronavirus pandemic, two institutions play a central role in the evidence-based classification of events for politics and the population. The Robert Koch Institute (RKI) coordinates the fight against the pandemic, prepares well-founded recommendations for medical professionals, the media and the population, and advises politicians. The Federal Centre for Health Education (BZgA) informs the population and institutions. GOALS: The COVID-19 Snapshot Monitoring (COSMO) project monitors whether and how trust in institutions changes over the pandemic. Which population groups show trust and how this is related to attitudes, risk perception and behaviour are analysed. METHODS: Cross-sectional studies with approximately N = 1000 respondents per survey were conducted since March 2020 to investigate risk perception, behaviour, acceptance of measures and trust in institutions. RESULTS: Trust in the RKI and BZgA was generally high but declined over the course of the pandemic. Higher trust for both institutions was associated with higher age of respondents, higher education, higher risk perception and higher acceptance of measures. Behaviours such as physical distancing and handwashing were shown more frequently. Men and the chronically ill showed lower trust. DISCUSSION: The results show that trust should be further promoted. This could be achieved, among other things, by taking into account the population's perspective (e.g. through COSMO) in the development and justification of strategies and measures. Communication strategies and recommendations for action should aim to support and relieve people with high-risk perceptions.

[Health Promotion and Disease Prevention - Results of the Working Group 6 of the Forum Future Public Health, Berlin 2016]. / Gesundheitsförderung und Prävention.

The increase in so-called lifestyle-related diseases emphasizes that focusing health care systems on the diseased population is insufficient to meet the challenges of population health. Instead, a proactive reorientation of health care structures towards more disease prevention, health promotion, and health protection is necessary. In addition to national institutions, municipal and non-governmental structures (public health services, health conferences etc.) play a central role in the implementation of such structural changes, as they are the societal organizations in direct contact with citizens.

[Health care provisions for asylum-seekers : A nationwide survey of public health authorities in Germany]. / Die gesundheitliche Versorgungssituation von Asylsuchenden : Bundesweite Bestandsaufnahme über die Gesundheitsämter.

BACKGROUND: Nation-wide studies on the health care situation of asylum-seekers in Germany are lacking, but decision-makers increasingly need such information. OBJECTIVES: The aim of the study was to assess structures, processes and needs related to the health care provision for asylum-seekers along the continuum of reception centres to community dwellings from the perspective of the German public health authorities. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A nation-wide cross-sectional mixed-methods survey was carried out. All heads of public health authorities in Germany (N = 389) were invited to complete a standardized questionnaire related to: (1) medical procedures and screening; (2) prevention and health promotion; (3) communication; (4) documentation and information; (5) coordination; (6) structural resources and needs. The quantitative survey was complemented by qualitative semi-structured interviews. RESULTS: In total, 123 heads of public health authorities (response rate: 31,6 %) completed the questionnaire, and 29 were interviewed. Priority areas to improve the health care situation were better coordination and standardisation of care, enhancing vaccination capacities, standardised documentation, better health information exchange (in line with data protection laws), and a stronger focus on a few relevant infectious diseases in the scope of compulsory health entry examinations. CONCLUSION: The instruments proved useful to assess the health care situation of asylum-seekers in a decentralized health care system. Repeated surveys with a focus on selected domains of the questionnaire could help monitor the health care situation on a regular basis.

Declining prevalence rates for overweight and obesity in German children starting school.

UNLABELLED: To estimate the development of prevalence rates for overweight and obesity in children starting school in Germany, data for children's height and weight out of the compulsory school enrolment examinations (SEE), conducted annually in every German federal state, were available. A former analysis of these data showed a marked increase of prevalence of overweight and obesity until 2004. The aim of this project was to give an updated overview on the development of prevalence rates for overweight and obesity in children upon school entry by including recent data until 2008. Data on measured height and weight from the yearly conducted SEE were obtained from all 16 German federal states. Overweight and obesity were defined by BMI > 90th and BMI > 97th age- and gender-related percentiles of German reference values, respectively. In 2008, the prevalence for overweight varied from 8.4% in Saxony to 11.9% in Bremen and Thuringia. The current prevalence rates for obesity ranged from 3.3% in Brandenburg and Saxony till 5.4% in Saarland. The current data from SEE by the majority of the individual states showed that the prevalence for both overweight and obesity did not increase any more after 2004 and is even declining in some states compared to the former data inquiry. Absolute decrease of prevalence rates was up to 3% for overweight and 1.8% for obesity. CONCLUSION: The current data from the SEE of individual German states are based on census and showed by the majority that the prevalence of overweight and obese children starting school did not increase anymore and even declined in the last 4 years, respectively. It is supposed that the measures for prevention initiated in the 1990s and implemented afterwards have contributed to this positive development in Germany.

School opening during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic: Public acceptance of wearing fabric masks in class.

OBJECTIVES: Policy decisions regarding mask wearing in schools in times of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic will likely be made despite a lack of scientific data. Public acceptance is therefore an important indicator to inform the communication activities that accompany the introduction of a new policy. The goal was to assess acceptance and relevant target groups for communication activities. STUDY DESIGN: Cross-sectional online survey embedded in the regular German COVID-19 monitoring. METHODS: Besides sociodemographic information, trust in institutions, knowledge about COVID-19 and protective behaviors, as well as risk perceptions, we assessed public acceptance of school-related mask policies of parents and non-parents (total N â€‹= â€‹957). RESULTS: In the absence of mandatory mask policies in schools in Germany in August 2020, the general agreement with mask wearing in school was low. Those living in bigger cities or communities - where class sizes are usually larger - agreed more with mask wearing in class; those who felt a greater risk, had greater trust in institutions, or felt higher self-efficacy in fighting the outbreak also wanted children to wear a mask in class. Women were more likely than men to disagree with mask wearing in class. Agreement was highest that policies should uniformly apply for all institutions within a state/province and should not be regulated at the school level or federal/country level. CONCLUSIONS: Implementing mask policies in school will require intense communication. Acceptance of these policies from teachers and pupils should be considered as well. Women seem to be an important target group as they supported mask wearing in class less than men. Women's roles in controlling infectious diseases in school should therefore receive special attention and support.

Cancelled routine vaccination appointments due to COVID-19 pandemic in Germany.

Pandemic measures to mitigate the outbreak of SARS-CoV-2 in Germany led to cancellations of routine vaccination appointments for both adults and children. Survey data indicate that, with easing pandemic restrictions, many cancelled appointments were rescheduled or caught up. Nevertheless, 40% of cancelled appointments were still not rescheduled and were primarily cancelled by patients. Therefore, doctors should regularly remind patients of vaccinations and use every visit to improve their vaccination statuses.