[HBSC Study as an Instrument for Health Reporting among Children and Adolescents - Potential and Limitations].

Prevention and health promotion have to target children and adolescents. Health reporting significantly contributes to assess the needs in terms of intervention planning in children and adolescents and to plan interventions of the highest priority. In Germany, reporting on children and adolescent's health takes place at federal, federal state and regional levels. Health reporting is based on surveys or monitoring, official statistics or on other data provided by institutions and stakeholders in the health system. The nationally representative Health Behaviour in School-Aged Children (HBSC) survey under the auspices of the WHO - which has been conducted every 4 years since 1982, is a further database in Germany that is representative for the 11-15-year olds girls and boys from general educational schools. In this paper, the HBSC survey will be located within the canon of the German health reporting system. A special emphasis is to describe the potential and limitations of HBSC study for health reporting and to highlight the additional value for health reporting in Germany. © Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart · New York.