[Community health promotion policy for women by health reports?].

It is the declared aim of any national health policy to assist in the development of life styles and environments, in cooperation with other institutions, that would promote the overall health of the population. The Federal German provincial ("Land") governments and municipal as well as county administrations have been preparing health reports for this purpose during the last few years. The question is whether these reports adequately ensure the promotion of health among women in particular. Our conclusion is that this is not yet the case. The purpose of the following article is to describe and assess the present state of the problem and policy formulation. To this end we evaluated and synopsized 16 provincial and urban reports via document analysis. The health reports show that, although they do include problem definitions in relation to the health situation of women, they fail to formulate health targets for them. The reports are neither coordinated with health policy executives, nor do public health administrations cooperate with any other sectors of the administration to formulate and translate into reality a policy that would promote the health of women. On assessing the health reports in respect of their ranking within the Public Health Action Cycle for a health-promoting policy we must conclude that in their present form they are unsuitable both for defining health promotion problems and for formulating health policies with particular reference to women as an important target group. These health reports, as they are now being prepared and presented, lack clear definition and orientation with regard to appropriate action.