[National Research Program 1A: health educational interventions in Aarau: examples and detailed concepts]

In order to participate in the production of new ideas for local health campaigns, regular sessions are held with members of the health committee and the project team. These brain-storming sessions are based on problem lists using data of the initial health examination and the experience with health education campaigns accumulated so far in the program. The ideas are operationalized into concepts for health education campaigns: for each campaign, goals have to be stated clearly (attitudinal, behavioral goals), target groups have to be identified, the arguments and the type of media have to be specified and the costs calculated. This paper presents four examples of health education campaigns within the local intervention program in Aarau. For each of the two risk factors "nutrition" and "physical activity", a mass media campaign and a group-oriented campaign is discussed (nutrition: a campaign including fifteen restaurants to promote healthy alternatives to regular menus, groups to lose weight. Physical activity: "the walk around the world", jogging groups). It is concluded that, based on a community intervention model, health education campaigns are feasible and have the potential to reach a large fraction of the population.