Urban development and the fight against poverty as health promotion measures

The Salomon Neumann Medal of the German Society for Social Medicine and Pre vention bears the inscription. "Medicine is a Social Science". This provoca tive statement is most topical. It compels us to actively promote health by healthier living and environmental conditions apart from medical preventio n. A core of this sphere of action is the reduction of social inequalities. Several recent congresses and publications have clearly shown that this su bject remains one of the biggest challenges facing health promotion. German law has set the signs for reducing socially rooted inequalities for chance s of health. This article postulates the thesis that health promotion can find allies fo r a healthy public policy in programmes planning for healthy urban developm ent and for combatting poverty. The specific approaches for combatting soci al inequalities in the health sphere are reported and examples are given ho w such a health promotion policy may be translated into reality on a commun al level. Finally, spotlight is on the dilemma of combatting inequality of chances due to differences in social status.