[Health promotion in the work environment--old and new challenges for public health]

Abstract

Associations between work and health can be found at many different levels. Work itself can have health hazardous as well as health promoting effects. Work defines status and life-style as well as social security and occupies a large proportion of time in our lives. Until now the process to integrate issues of worksite prevention and health promotion into Public Health proceeds slowly in contrast to other countries e.g. the USA. Weak connections between occupational medicine and Public Health as well as relative few projects focussing on work site in the Public Health Research Associations reflect this trend. Work site public health research according to the guidelines of the Ottawa Charta (WHO) could enhance the transition of approaches justified now in terms of risk and legal liability towards an orientation on health resources and preventive potentials. This transition is promising in regard to the science of public health. However, bottleneck facilities can be identified: the development of appropriate health reports in companies, the implementation and further development of new steering models for worksite interventions (especially the organizational development) and the implementation and further development of appropriate form of quality assurance which can be evaluated.