The Robert Koch Institute (RKI): main building in Berlin. more
Germany’s Public Health institute RKI monitors the population’s health and wellbeing. more
The Robert Koch Institute is the German government's central institution for the identification, surveillance and prevention of infectious diseases in the Portfolio of the German Ministry of Health. more
Our diet is essential for health and well-being. What we eat and drink is important for the daily supply of energy and nutrients and for maintaining the body's functions. In the long term, a balanced diet also plays a significant role in the prevention of disease and its progression in the event of illness. Therefore, dietary behaviour is a key issue for health promotion and disease prevention, e.g. through health policy measures.
In the context of health monitoring activities (BGS98, DEGS1, GEDA, KiGGS), various aspects of dietary behaviour are collected, analysed and evaluated. Data collection instruments include food frequency questionnaires and, for more comprehensive dietary assessments, diet history interviews (using the software DISHES) and food records. Food consumption was recorded in more detail in the nutrition module of the Federal Health Survey 1998 and in the nutrition study as a KiGGS module (EsKiMo, EsKiMo II). In addition, blood and urine parameters are also collected as part of the health monitoring, which allow an evaluation about the supply of selected nutrients (e.g. folate or iron).
With the nutrition and dietary behaviour information several research questions can be addressed. This comprises analyses in different age groups on food consumption, nutrient supply, adherence to dietary recommendations and dietary patterns. Further aspects such as dietary behaviour in specific groups of interest, prevalence of vegetarian diets, use of nutrient supplements and prevalence of family meals have been also reported.
Some analyses and work on development of databases and instruments for assessing dietary behaviour are carried out in cooperation, for example, with the Max Rubner Institute and the Federal Institute for Risk Assessment or in international projects.
