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
In Germany, certain marked regional differences exist with respect to life expectancy, the incidence of diseases and health issues, and health-related behaviour. These disparities are no longer limited to differences between the old and new German states. Important factors determining regional differences include, in particular, the demographic structure and the social situation of the population.
Regional differences in health can go hand-in-hand with differences in terms of the need for medical services. They thus represent important starting points for prevention, public health services in the federal states and communities, and requirements planning for inpatient, outpatient and nursing care. This topic therefore has particularly high public health relevance.
In the framework of the health monitoring programme, the Robert Koch Institute regularly collects data on the state of health and health-related behaviour of the population, and also evaluates this data according to region as far as possible.
The evaluations of the RKI also aim to find influencing factors which could contribute to reducing regional differences. In addition, however, process-generated data (for example, data on the cause of death statistics) is used for the analysis of regional differences.
Work on the research topic “Regional differences” takes place in close cooperation with work on the research topic “Social inequality and health”.
