Abstract
The German Prevention Act underlines the need for an evidence-based approach to prevention and health promotion. It is unclear which steps and processes are necessary for the evolving system of prevention and health promotion in Germany to meet this requirement. This overview article aims to define and operationalize evidence-based interventions in prevention and health promotion and describes the necessary organizational support and capacity building to foster evidence-based action in practice.Based on the international scientific literature and the Federal Centre for Health Education's Memorandum on Evidence-based Prevention and Health Promotion, the term evidence-based intervention is defined and operationalized, and implementation requirements in terms of organizational processes and capacity building are described and discussed.To foster implementation of evidence-based action in practice, decision makers in policy and practice should draw on a shared understanding of the concept of evidence-based interventions and of the need for evaluations that assure generating evidence while implementing interventions. Moreover, organizational support is necessary, such as emphasizing the value of evidence-based action within organizations, ensuring access to existing evidence databases with a transparent and relevant presentation of evidence, advancing competencies of the workforce in searching for and interpreting evidence syntheses, as well as promoting a systematic cooperation between practitioners and researchers.Implementing the above-described elements for more evidence-based action is an important step towards strengthening the evolving system of prevention and health promotion as a fifth pillar of the German health system.