Research Unit Health Promotion and Prevention

Lead: Dr. Michaela Coenen

The Research Unit Health Promotion and Prevention is engaged in the evaluation and scientific monitoring of health promotion and prevention projects in different settings. We assess the health status of populations with different diseases and of the general population. Furthermore, we implement and evaluate interventions in different settings. Therefore, our multidisciplinary research unit conducts health services research in disease-specific areas, including mental disorders and traumatic injury. We use a wide range of research strategies, designs and methods, from qualitative studies to prospective cohort studies. We generate evidence for a range of different policies and public health interventions, including through the use of systematic literature reviews and other forms of synthesis.

Our team works on projects at local, national and international level. We contribute to implementing and evaluating public health interventions and (clinical) care interventions for different age groups. We share a comprehensive understanding of health, based on the World Health Organization’s (WHO) biopsychosocial model of functioning and disability.

We work on topics related to the climate crisis and its connection to human and planetary health, and we develop and evaluate concepts for the implementation of training and teaching on this topic.

Our team is responsible for the development and implementation of the WHO's ICF e-learning tool in German and supports other languages. We also provide trainings on the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF).

As part of the Pettenkofer School of Public Health Munich (PSPH), our team is committed to support excellent teaching activities of the Medical Faculty at LMU Munich by offering courses and modules in the master’s programmes MScPublic Health and MSc Epidemiology at LMU Munich, as well as by continuously supervising internships, master’s and doctoral theses, and others.

Research areas

• Health and prevention in childhood and adolescence
• Workplace health promotion
• Community-based health promotion
• Intended and unintended consequences of pandemics
• Urban health
• Planetary health
• Outcome prognosis and prediction of work ability
• Age and loneliness
• Well-being, resilience and mental health
• Functioning and disability
• Mobility and participation
• Nature-based interventions
• Planetary Health

Methodological focus

• Process and outcome evaluation
• Quantitative methods
• Qualitative and mixed methods approaches
• Systematic reviews
• Development of predictive models for outcome prediction
• Evaluation of routine data

An overview of our research activities on COVID-19 can be found here.