In the rich industrialized countries the growth in chronic degenerative conditions presents a double challenge to health systems. Prevention and health promotion could potentially prevent many of these ailments or at least delay their onset, but there is also a need for new forms of care for these conditions. At the same time the social inequality of health opportunities is growing, as is the discrepancy between the services provided by health systems and the actual need for prevention and appropriate care. How can these health risks be reduced? How are prevention and healthcare organized and managed? These are the questions on which the work of the Public Health Research Group is based. The research group investigates how societal and institutional structures increase or lessen health risks and promote or hinder integrated healthcare. The central themes of this research group are political control and regulation; workplace health; HIV and AIDS; participatory health research; and age, inequality and health.