Use, evaluation and quality management of primary preventive health programmes

Prevention and health promotion are important mandates of the statutory health insurance companies in Germany. Quality management system is therefore an important prerequisite of ensuring successful adoption of the programme. For this reason, the AOK North-West, one of the biggest health insurance companies in Germany, has developed a measurement system for a routine evaluation of prevention and health promotion programmes. The article describes the measurement instrument and preliminary findings from 7050 participants in structured courses for the promotion of physical activity. The questionnaire particularly covered socio-demographic data (age, gender, educational background and occupational status), quality appraisal of courses and instructors, physical complaints as well as exercise adherence. On average, the intervention programmes were positively evaluated by the participants and estimated as very important for prevention as well as coping complaints. In contrast to other findings, people of all social classes including near-illiterate classes attended the prevention courses offered by the AOK North-West.