My medical training taught me to diagnose and treat disease. However, I quickly became interested in the person behind the illness, the psychological and social factors that are often the root causes. This led me to the bio-psycho-social model and to a new question: how do an individual’s perceptions, behaviours, and decisions shape their health and use of healthcare?
This question guided my PhD and postdoctoral research at HKU’s School of Public Health, where I studied HPV vaccination decision-making. My goal was to understand the psycho-social influences on this choice and to advocate for policies that could protect an entire generation. It was a long journey, but witnessing the Hong Kong government introduce free, school-based HPV vaccination for all girls, a programme my own daughter will benefit from this Friday, served as a profound reminder of how research can translate into real-world impact.
By the end of this month, I will have been at the Sau Po Centre on Ageing for two years. I am sincerely grateful for the opportunity to engage in multiple carer support projects, particularly the Jockey Club “Stand-by U” Caregivers Community Support Project (https://jcstandbyu.hk/), which has deepened my perspective from population-level research to the grassroots realities of community care. Working directly with NGOs, I gained deeper insight into the dilemmas faced by family caregivers: particularly those elderly caring for the elderly, elderly living alone, as well as working carers balancing multiple social roles. Their struggles reflect rapid social structural changes that our community support and health services have yet to fully address. This immersion has crystallized my understanding: to build an age-friendly society, we must redesign services to align with how people actually live and age. Whether it is a child receiving a preventive vaccine or a caregiver navigating a complex system, the common thread is clear: we must look beyond the “disease” to the person, and beyond the person to the world they inhabit. That is the challenge I am committed to tackling.
3-Mar-2026
By Linda Wang, Research Assistant Professor, Sau Po Centre on Ageing, HKU