A long time ago in 2005 when I graduated from the University of Pécs, Faculty of Health Sciences, specialising in Health Insurance and worked as a teaching assistant lecturer at the University of Pécs between 2005 and 2011. During this period, my teaching primarily focused on health financing and informatics, alongside statistics. The following milestone was 2010 when I completed my degree as a Qualified Economist at the University of West Hungary, specialising in finance and international communication. Beyond the academic sphere, I sought practical experience and thus, from 2011, I served as a health financing specialist at the Saint Christopher Clinic in Budapest, with a primary focus on controlling and informatics area.
In September 2018, under an EU grant, the Újbuda Health Development Office (HDO) was established, where I participated from the proposal preparation to its implementation. As a preventive health service provider, the HDO’s aims to preserve people’s health through nutrition, exercise, and mental hygiene. Today, following the successful implementation of the project, the importance and significance of such Offices have been recognised by the Hungarian society, allowing the Újbuda Health Development Office in Budapest to continue operating through central and local funding sources, with my support as a project manager. After its establishment, interactions with several preventive service professionals revealed that the uptake of preventive services depends on various health sociological factors.
Having long harboured a dream to pursue PhD studies, in 2023, I approached Dr. István Vingender, the Deputy Dean of Education at Semmelweis University’s Faculty of Health Sciences, a distinguished expert in health sociology. Following his recommendation, I applied for the Doctoral School at Semmelweis University in the spring of 2023, gaining admission to the Health Sciences Branch, where I am participating in the Interdisciplinary Applied Health Sciences Program. Dr. Vingender, the program’s lead, has supported my research from the outset, advising me to conduct investigations in gerontosociology and analyse the impact of Health Development Offices on the health attitudes of the elderly.
In 2023, I completed a biostatistics course by Emeritus Professor Elek Dinya, marking a significant advancement in my statistical knowledge. In my work, I have used questionnaires to investigate the extent to which older people in Hungary use Health Development Offices and the services they provide. (N=108; n=44)
Together with my fellow PhD. student, Viola Angyal, we have been researching the role of artificial intelligence in health promotion from the autumn of 2023, offering potential benefits to Health Development Offices as well. Our mutual research efforts aim to support each other in studies related to health promotion.
My goal by early 2024 was to analyse the spatial concentration and distribution of Health Development Offices using geospatial modelling (N=108). This health geographical modelling aimed to assess whether Health Development Offices could meet the preventative health needs of the population and the elderly. Moving forward, I aim to examine, through my own surveys, the impact of Health Development Offices on the health attitudes of individuals over the age of 60.