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Summary: The development of an educational concept of a training programme for infection prevention and control (IPC) was seen as a key issue to successfully address the complexity of change processes of professional IPC routines in clinical procedures. Therefore, the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), Nigeria, and the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), Germany established an interdisciplinary project framework, involving knowledge and competences from different disciplines and professions like health professionals, epidemiologists and educators (MAURICE project). A multi-module training programme for health care workers to improve IPC standards was developed and implemented based on the participatory approach and a systemic view for organizational change. Keywords: Nigeria, Infection prevention and control (IPC), Training programme, Participatory approach, Systemic view, Inter- and transdisciplinary approach

Growth charts are key instruments for monitoring growth in infants, children and adolescents and for identifying potential health or nutritional problems. Percentile curves are used to track the growth of individual children compared to the distribution of body measurements in a reference population. The National Health Interview and Examination Survey for Children and Adolescents (KiGGS) 2003 to 2006 is a milestone in improving the availability of data on the health on children and adolescents in Germany. This volume contains KiGGS reference percentiles for blood pressure and various body measurements: length/height, body weight, body mass index (BMI), waist circumference, hip circumference, waist-to-hipratio (WHR), waist-to-height-ratio (WHtR), skin fold thickness, estimates of total body fat, as well as head circumference. The percentile curves and reference tables are based on standardised measurements of children and adolescents aged 3 months to 17 years who participated in the KiGGS 2003 to 2006 study. The strengths of the KiGGS reference percentiles include the nationally representative and large sample, an even representation of all age groups from 0 up to under 18 years for boys and girls, the standardisation of measurements and the use of modern statistical methods. Only very few children under the age of 3 months participated in KiGGS. However, percentiles are needed in clinical practice from birth onwards. Therefore, KiGGS data have been supplemented by birth data (perinatal survey 1995 to 2000) and missing data points have been interpolated.

Everyday factors like diet, exercise, alcohol consumption, stress management have a lifelong bearing on blood pressure, which we can help to shape both as individuals and as a society. There is significant potential here for preventing high blood pressure through careful analysis of the possible causes, providing advice and support for changing habits and creating favourable conditions for this kind of improvement in lifestyle habits, if possible throughout the entire population. This edition of GBE kompakt presents current figures and trends regarding blood pressure in Germany and focusses on two topics: the distribution of blood pressure measurements in the general population and the treatment of hypertension.

All in all, people in Germany are fine. About three quarters consider their health as good or very good. Life expectancy is rising, and thanks to improvements in prevention, diagnostics and therapy, less people are dying from cardiovascular diseases and cancer. However, the growing numbers of obesity and diabetes mellitus are of major concern; mental disorders also need more attention. These are some of the conclusions of the new report "Health in Germany". It provides a profound overview of the status and development of human health in our country. A broad database was included in order to represent the most important diseases and risk factors, changes in the disease spectrum, the use of prevention and the quality of health care (also compared to the rest of Europe). The report shows that there are two major developments essentially determining health and healthcare in Germany: the demographic changes which, among other things, lead to more chronical diseases and the strong influence of the social situation on health. It provides crucial information and orientation for politicians, doctors, scientists and everyone who shapes the processes and measures to improve health. It hence supports evidence-based decisions for more health in Germany. It is the third comprehensive report of this kind in the Federal Health Reporting; the two former reports have been published in 1998 and 2006 (English translation in 2008).

Regular alcohol consumption endangers health and is associated with an increased risk of a variety of physical illnesses and mental disorders. This issue's interest is focused on alcohol consumption during adolescence since young people may be viewed as the most important target group for alcohol prevention measures. Attitudes toward alcohol, drinking motives and consumption patterns that form during adolescence often still exist in adulthood. Studies suggest that starting to drink early and excessive consumption of alcohol at a young age increases the probability of problematic alcohol consumption later in life and increases the risk of alcohol dependency.

Noise is defined as sound which is disruptive or unwanted. It can lead to a variety of negative effects. This issue presents results on noise annoyance in the living environment of the general population in Germany from various noise sources. The analysis focuses on examining the relationship between noise annoyance and selected demographic and socioeconomic factors, as well as self-reported physical and mental health problems. The results are taken from the “German Health Update” study (GEDA) of the Robert Koch Institute from 2012.

On the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, this issue deals with the question of how and to what extent health in Germany developed in the last 25 years. It firstly considers data on mortality and the average life expectancy. Issues of cardiovascular diseases, cancer and mental health problems are addressed. The authors take a closer look at significant health determinants such as obesity, tobacco and alcohol consumption, and physical activity. In addition, the topic of health care, particularly the range of outpatient services, is covered. A wide variety of data is used, which include official statistics as well as data from the health surveys of the Robert Koch Institute, and the Federal Centre for Health Education, among others.

This issue offers a summary of available research results on differences in mortality and life expectancy for Germany. This summary not only includes studies based on comparisons between socioeconomic status groups but also takes into account regional analyses which outline the relationship between socioeconomic indicators and life expectancy on the level of the federal states. In addition to that, Thomas Lampert and Lars Eric Kroll also examine time trends that can be observed with regard to the social differences in mortality and life expectancy. Finally, the available findings for Germany are compared with results for other comparable countries and discussed, paying due consideration to the deficits in the data basis.

The first issue of 2014 focuses on hysterectomy. The removal of the uterus currently ranks among the most frequent gynaecological procedures both in Germany and internationally. Medical indications for a hysterectomy other than malignant diseases of the uterus or ovaries include a variety of benign conditions of the uterus. The most important underlying illnesses and the medical reasons for a hysterectomy will be presented in this article by Franziska Prütz and Elena von der Lippe. The authors will go into detail regarding their frequency and factors that can possibly influence the intervention. The base data is sourced primarily from the results of the German Health Interview and Examination Survey for Adults (DEGS1) conducted by the Robert Koch Institute. Additional sources of data are official statistics as well as data from external in-patient quality assurance and the Centre for Cancer Registry Data.

The focus of this issue of GBE kompakt is depression. Depressive disorders are among the most significant mental disorders. Due to their frequency, complications and consequences, they are of outstanding importance with regard to policy and economics. One stable result of all studies is the difference between women and men in prevalence of depression. Women are affected approximately twice as frequently as men. Stephan Müters, Jens Hoebel and Cornelia Lange describe major reasons for the gender-specific differences in depression. Furthermore, they analyze the data of the GEDA study to investigate the interrelationships between social characteristics (socio-economic status, employment, social support e.g.) and diagnosed depression.