[Health promotion and prevention as responsibilities of the established physician--status and current deficits]

General practitioners have been questioned by the Society of panel doctors of Bavaria about the status, deficiencies and the future focus of prevention in the medical office. The results of this questionnaire was compared to similar studies from Niedersachsen and Switzerland. From these results, conclusions should be drawn for initiatives of the medical self-administration to improve the preventive out-patient care. Written questionnaires with a semi-structured form for all of the 1067 general practitioners in the district Oberfranken of the Society of panel doctors of Bavaria. Response 33.7%. Descriptive analysis of the answers and development of a list of priorities of further education in preventive medicine. Comparison of the results with questionnaires in German language. Preventive care plays an important role in the medical practice. However, the status of prevention has currently a lower importance as it would be appropriate. This is caused by unsatisfactory honorary, lack of further education, and lack of time for an adequate consultation. It was recommended that the medical self-administration should offer more further education about preventive medicine. In all three cited studies, first of many topics, where there was a need for further education, was nutrition followed by withdrawing from smoking and protection from infections.