[Prevention and health promotion in the Federal Republic of Germany (1945-2010)--an initial study on gender specific...

If one tries to explain the longer life expectancy of women there are not only medical but also social scientific approaches. These focus primarily on social parameters that influence male and female behaviour. Men are said to be more careless, while women are considered to be highly sensitive and mindful of the treatment of their bodies. This is apparent in their use of professional medical assistance. Women see a physician and undergo preventive examination more frequently than men. This may also be responsible for the fact that Germany's woman-centred policy of prevention and health promotion has not been able to motivate men to adopt preventive health behaviour. From 1945 up until the new millennium women were the main target of prevention campaigns. The first health promotions of the 1950s and 1960s were mainly based on the former understanding of gender roles which saw women as more sensible and traditionally responsible for health issues; they were the ones to pass on their knowledge. The first preventive examinations also focused explicitly on women. Preventive measures for men tended to be work-related. Only recently, since the beginning of the 1990s, a gender-specific approach has emerged, starting with the prevention of addiction. Target-group-orientated work has by now doubtlessly become the standard in health-related interventions, but putting them into practice will remain a challenge.