Ms Sonja Bloch MSc

Sonja Bloch

Institute of Applied Health Research
PhD Student

Contact details

Email
s.bloch@pgr.bham.ac.uk
Twitter
@SCMBloch
Address
Health Economics Unit
Murray Learning Centre
University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT
UK

Sonja joined the Health Economics Unit in October 2018 as a PhD student focussing on the measurement of costs and benefits for sexual health control programmes. Sonja is supervised by Health Economics Unit’s Dr Louise Jackson, Professor Emma Frew and Professor Jonathan Ross (University Hospitals Birmingham (UHB). It is a three year Umbrella Sexual Health Services, UHB NHS Foundation Trust funded project aiming to develop approaches for economic evidence about sexual health programmes to inform local decision-making.

Before coming to Birmingham, Sonja completed her MSc. in International Development and Management at Lund University where she had the opportunity to investigate the effects of HIV prevention programmes in Ukraine.

Linkedin

Qualifications

  • MSc in International Development and Management, Lund University, 2018
  • Professional Bachelor in Global Nutrition and Health, Metropolitan University College Copenhagen, 2016
    • Specialised in Public Health Nutrition and Food Policy

Biography

Sonja’s interest is in sexual health and the prevention of sexually transmitted infections. During her graduate studies, she focused on the influence of an HIV prevention programme on adolescents’ behaviour and knowledge in Kiev, Ukraine. Before coming to Lund University in Sweden, Sonja studied in Copenhagen, Denmark where she started to become interested in health prevention programmes especially in lower-middle income countries. Topics such as “Equity in Healthcare” and “Global Health Issues” foster Sonja’s curiosity and motivation in doing research. Her aim is to contribute to overall research in her topic area but also to ensure that methods and results may be transferable to other contexts.

Postgraduate supervision

PhD supervisors:

Research

Costs and outcomes of sexual health control programmes.

  • Identifying and developing approaches to understand costs and outcomes of sexually transmitted infection control programmes to inform local decision making
  • A mixed method study involving a systematic review, qualitative interviews and an economic evaluation
  • Expected year of completion: 2022

Influence of an HIV prevention programme on female adolescents’ behaviour and knowledge in Kiev, Ukraine.

  • Applied a mixed methods approach to investigate the phenomenon of comparably high HIV prevalence in Eastern Europe

Results of this exploratory case study showed that knowledge about preventive measures concerning HIV is generally high among female adolescents. However, there seems to be a perceived distance to HIV from the focus group. This is why, young females may not act on their knowledge, e.g. by getting tested regularly for HIV.

Research groups and centres

Health Economics Unit