[Supra-regional public health actors in Germany-an overview and categorization].

Background: Public health actors contribute significantly to health protection, promotion, and prevention at the population level. An overview of the public health landscape can facilitate collaboration among the stakeholders and increase transparency of career paths for young professionals.

Objectives: This study aims to develop an overview and category system of supra-regional public health actors in Germany.

Methods: Based on a list of institutional actors that participated in the national conference Future Forum Public Health ("Zukunftsforum Public Health") and a targeted online search by the authors, supra-regional institutions and organizations with a public health focus were identified. All actors were screened independently by ≥ 2 authors. Community-level actors as well as those without a direct public health focus were excluded. Additional actors were identified via a snowballing process. In order to cluster the actors thematically, a category system was formed inductively.

Results: Out of a total of 645 screened actors, 307 (47.6%) were included and subsequently assigned to 12 main and 30 subcategories. Professional associations (n = 60) made up the largest category, followed by civil society (n = 49) and state actors (n = 40). In addition to a tabular and graphical overview, an interactive visualization of the actors was created ( www.noeg.org ).

Conclusions: This study provides a comprehensive overview of supra-regional institutional public health actors in Germany and highlights the breadth of the German public health landscape. The results of this work offer new opportunities for collaboration and can support young professionals in their career paths. Building on this work, further research on public health actors is recommended.