1990 Bases for Action of the Federal Center for Health Education

Characterization of job situation. Use of drugs and semi-luxury
foods,tobacco and alcohol. Eating habits and condition of health.

Topics: 1. Work: detailed information on training and occupational
activity; time worked each week; overtime; side jobs; work orientation;
type of physical burdens at work; frequency of personal work accidents
with severe injuries; change of job and change of employer for health
reasons; frequency and length of personal unemployment in the last 10
years; characterization of psychological and health stress at work;
effects of stress at work on private life; pressure of time and
difficulties with superiors; smoking and use of alcohol at work.

2. Housework: extent of housework on weekdays, Saturdays and Sundays;
persons handicapped or in need of care in household; position of women
in family and professional life (scale); attitude to housework (scale).

3. Family and leisure time: judgement on personal family life (scale);
contacts with advice centers; most important burdens and problems
(scale); satisfaction with leisure time; personal friend or person to
confide in.

4. Nutrition: eating under pressure of time or calmly;
health-conscious eating habits; diet; participation in courses with the
goal of loosing weight; short-term or lasting success in weight
control; weight and shoe size.

5. Use of tobacco products: smoking habits; age at start of use of
tobacco products; number of cigarettes smoked daily; cigarettes
strength and preference of filter cigarettes; use of tobacco
conditional on situation or specification of occasions of doing
without; number of attempts to quit smoking or cut down; length and
frequency of such attempts to do without; current desire to quit
smoking; interest in courses for smokers to break the habit; number of
smokers in household; stays in smoke-filled rooms; perceived irritation
from heavy tobacco use.

The following questions were posed to persons who had successfully
quit smoking: time period since quitting smoking; manner of quitting
smoking; most important reasons for ending use of tobacco; average use
of cigarettes as smoker; attempts to motivate others to do without
tobacco; persons to whom it was suggested that they quit smoking, and
type of reactions or type of resulting abstention.

6. Use of alcohol: frequency and extent of use of alcohol,
differentiated according to use of beer, champagne or wine as well as
spirits; effects of alcohol (scale).

7. Use of drugs: knowledge of selected drugs and knowledge about the
general frequency of use of these drugs; assessment of the prevalence
of drugs where one lives and assessment of future development; drug
addicts in one´s circle of friends; fear of contact with drugs among
close persons; fears relative to one´s own children; perceived concerns
that close persons could have contact with drugs; assessment of
physical and psychological dangers from use of hashish, heroin and
cocaine; information conduct regarding the effects of drugs;
self-assessment of extent to which informed about the effects of use of
drugs; supported and unsupported familiarity of the information
pamphlet ´Drogen´ {drugs}; degree of familiarity of the advertising
slogan ´Keine Macht den Drogen´ {No power for drugs} and specifcation
of the advertising medium in which this quotation was noticed;
conversation partner about effects of the use of drugs.

In the form of a questionnaire to be filled out by the respondent
information on the following topics was obtained: specification of use
of hashish and cocaine by the three best friends; type of drugs used
oneself; last use of drugs; interest in trying out drugs.

8. Health: self-assessment of condition of health; perceived burden
from stress or occupation; detailed recording of selected illnesses and
complaints in the course of the last three months (questionnaire to be
filled out by the respondent); self-characterization of feelings of
personal responsibility and self-determination as well as latent fear
and depressions (scales in the questionnaire to be filled out by the
respondent); frequency of visits to the doctor and hospital stays in
the last few months; preference for self-diagnosis or consultation of
medical experts; general judgement on the ability of today´s medicine
to solve health problems; attitude to medical check-ups and one´s own
weight; overweight as caused by the person affected; use of
tranquilizers; assessment of the danger of smoking; use of medication
to increase ability; self-treatment or use of medication on doctor´s
orders; perceived jeopardy to health from environmental pollution and
dangers from food.

9. Determination through questionnaire to be filled out by the
respondent among persons between the ages of 16 to 65 years: perceived
security with protection against AIDS; concern for personal infection
or infection in one´s circle of friends and relatives; behavioral
changes from AIDS; classification of situations regarding their danger
of AIDS infection; expectation of an intimate partner in the next few
months; several intimate partners in the last year; individual
probability of infection with AIDS from sexual intercourse;
contraceptive method used by respondent or partner; interviewer rating
whether the interview at this point in time was conducted alone or in
the presence of other persons with possible interventions in the
interview.

10. Participation in cancer check-ups; type of health-promoting
athletic and nutritional activities; detailed information on
medications used in the last three months; number of medications used
at the same time; pain-killers, anti-depressants, tranquilizers or
stimulants taken during and before working hours.

11. Living together with a partner; year of marriage; professional
position and time worked each week of spouse; times of unemployment of
spouse; year of death of spouse or year of divorce; information on
composition, age structure and income conditions in household; month of
birth; year of birth; possession of a telephone.

Those not working were also asked: intent to take up employment.