HEALTH PROBLEM IN HUNGARY: GENESIS AND DEFINITION MARKERS

Abstract

The article outlines some aspects of the genesis and the main markers of defining key concepts of the health preservation problem in Hungary. In the area of ​​revealing the genesis of the problem raised through analytical materials, attention is focused on the emergence of periodicals that promoted health and healthy lifestyle, the first information about health preservation in Hungary, the coverage of issues related to health education, a significant conceptual transformation in the theory of education regarding the formation of ideas about health, the expansion of the institutionalization of health education in Hungary during the 18^th-20^th centuries.

It is summarized that in the process of institutionalization of sanitary education, the initial goal of medical work in schools and the curriculum of medical and sanitary education was only partially achieved, but as a determining factor it had a certain impact on the health status of the Hungarian population and on the concept of health. The main markers for defining key concepts in the study of health preservation in Hungary are the interpretation of the categories of "health", "health-oriented activity", "health-preserving environment", "health-preserving technologies" in the Ukrainian-Hungarian scientific discourse. The need to distinguish and characterize the definition of “health promotion”, used in the Ottawa Charter (1986) – one of the WHO program documents used in countries around the world in the formation of public health policy, is highlighted.

According to the definition of Hungarian scientists, the concept of “health promotion” is characterized as propaganda, popularization of healthy lifestyle, which includes the dissemination of health promotion policies, the creation of health-preserving environment, the development of partnership interaction, personal skills and increasing the level of accessibility of health services. The definition of “egészségfejlesztési títkelyk”(Eng.:“health promotion kit”) is interpreted as health-oriented activities aimed at implementing measures to promote health; a system of measures that provides for the necessary information on the formation, preservation and strengthening of health, care and control of one’s own health. The concept of “beneficial environment” as an instrumental space for the implementation of health care in educational institutions in Hungary is characterized as a natural and man-made environment conducive to strengthening control over human health.