Focus on health

Thematic relevance

Over the past few decades, the range of diseases has changed: Firstly, the aging population is leading to an increase in age-related chronic conditions, particularly multimorbidity, which involves complex care needs. Secondly, preventable, lifestyle-related diseases are on the rise across all age groups and now account for a significant proportion of the disease burden. This makes health promotion and health maintenance all the more important. This is also related to the generally low level of health literacy in Germany: Many people do not know how to approach health information appropriately and making informed decisions. This goes hand in hand with a less healthy lifestyle, greater use of health care services, and poorer general health.

Health is also influenced by many factors. In addition to individual behaviors, people's health is shaped by genetic factors, social and economic conditions, education, social relationships, the quality of health care, and environmental factors such as air and water quality. Prevention and health promotion are therefore responsibilities for society as a whole. 

The RBIH's ambition

People in Germany should spend more years of their lives in good healthand with a sense of well-being. Health information should be better understood, contextualized, and utilized so that people can make informed decisions about their own health.

The impact approach: how change is shaped

Since 2014, the RBIH – which at that time was still the Health funding area of the Robert Bosch Stiftung – has been working to strengthen health literacy, for example through the development, publication, and implementation of the National Action Plan on Health Literacy and by helping people with chronic conditions develop self-management skills. The findings obtained here are increasingly being used to develop approaches aimed at strengthening health literacy in the areas of prevention and health promotion.

These activities are intended to enable and support informed health decisions and to strengthen the population’s health literacy (= health literacy in general). The focus is particularly on lifestyle-related decisions, which are of central importance for prevention and health promotion (= health literacy for prevention and health promotion). At the same time, prevention and health promotion should be strengthened beyond the level of individual behavior (= prevention and health promotion in general) by also addressing structural and societal framework conditions. 

This is achieved through developing and promoting practical approaches to strengthening health literacy, prevention, and health promotion in everyday life. In addition, the organization works on establishing networks, raising public awareness, and promoting dialogue with relevant stakeholders at all levels. All activities are based on scientific evidence and take advantage of the opportunities offered by digital transformation.

Through our funding, we focus primarily on initiatives related to the health care system or that overlap with other areas supported by the Robert Bosch Stiftung. For example, we support school health initiatives in collaboration with the foundation’s education division.