[Increasing personal responsibility as a public health goal]

Self-management as one of the central categories of public health needs special factors to be promoted which will enable people to become independent, self-responsible and self-confident. This will succeed under the condition that patient autonomy is promoted, the predominant biomedical model of disease is developed further and health politics is understood as part of comprehensive social politics. Increased individual responsibility will only then be capable of bearing and stable in future if the entire social network is included into the promotion of health-related behaviour.