[Limits of preventive health care and health education]

The terms "limit", "health", "preventive care" and "education" are explained. The inherent limits of the contents of these terms are shown. A decisive fact in health education is that educational work relies heavily on the person of the educator; his personality is decisive as to whether the information and explanations given by him and the resulting motivation and exercising of new behaviour patterns will ultimately produce a permanent change in the patient's attitude. However, one must always bear in mind that health education is restricted by limitations, no matter how vigorously health education and preventive care are propagated. Offering health education so to say "from above", i.e. via an authority, by compulsory education or via official festive events on a communal plane, will be less successful than a personal relationship established by a motivated health educator. Regional working groups for health education have been created in the Land of Baden-Württemberg to coordinate as far as possible all health programmes and to make them topical wherever required. The limits are demonstrated by the description of 3 health projects: participants came mainly from the middle class of the population who merely wanted a confirmation of what they already knew.