Children and Youth Survey

Children are a society's future. The availability of information on the health of children and young people in Germany was insufficient for a long time and did not permit any nation-wide comparable conclusions. Representative data on the health status of the population aged under 18 has been made available for the first time in the National Children and Youth Health Survey. First results show that diseases of children and adolescents are characterized by a shift from acute to chronic diseases and from somatic to psychological disorders. It is particularly significant that children from socially disadvantaged families show poorer results, not only in some areas of health and quality of life, but in all areas. There is an accumulation of risk factors, an accumulation of accidents, illness, overweight, environmental burdens, poorer healthcare and psychological abnormalities.

The aim of the National Children and Youth Health Survey is to obtain for the first time representative data on the health status of the population aged under 18. A working group at the Robert Koch Institute examined over 17,000 children aged zero to 18 years and questioned their parents. The range of topics included, for example, chronic and acute diseases, mental health, allergies, nutrition and eating disorders as well as quality of life and social conditions. The procedure and methodology of the main phase of the Survey, which started in May 2003, was based on the results of the successful pre-test in 2002, which the BMBF funded with 800,000 Euro and which made the main study possible.

The implementation of the main phase of the survey was made possible by a concerted action on the part of several ministries. The core survey was funded by the BMBF and the Federal Ministry of Health (BMG) with 4.15 million Euro over four years. The BMBF provided 1.6 million Euro for research-related tasks. Together with the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU), the BMBF also funded an additional survey on the impact of certain environmental factors on child health, the so-called Children Environment Survey. The BMBF supported this survey with funds of one million Euro.

First evaluations of the data have been available since May 2007. They serve to identify health risks and thus act as a basis for targeted measures to maintain health and prevent illnesses. They are also an important prerequisite for further research in this field.

Further information on the Children and Youth Survey is available under http://www.kiggs.de/service/english/index.html