The Study of Quality of Life of The Elderly in Sao Thong Hin Municipality, Nonthaburi Province

Abstract

The research objectives are: (1) to describe the level of quality of life of the elderly in Sao Thong Hin Municipality, Nonthaburi Province, (2) to compare quality of life of the elderly in Sao Thong Hin Municipality, Nonthaburi Province, classified by personal and reinforcing factors, and (3) to study the relationship between enabling factors and quality of life of the elderly in the Sao Thong Hin Municipality, Nonthaburi Province. The research employed quantitative method, consisted of a sample of 400 elderly, using a stratified random sampling method of 200 people and a quota of 200 people. The data were collected by questionnaire and analyzed by Statistical Package for Social Sciences. The descriptive statistics used in data analysis are means, and standard deviations. Moreover, the inferential statistics are t-Test, One-Way Analysis of Variance (One-way ANOVA) and Chi-square, including Fisher's least significant difference (LSD) method for multiple comparison tests. The results revealed that the overall level of quality of life of the elderly was at a moderate level in all aspects, namely physical aspect, mental aspect, and social relationship aspect. For hypothesis testing, there was a statistically significant difference between personal factors, consisted of education level, number of family members, types of houses and vehicles, occupation before retirement, current income level, and quality of life of the elderly. Regarding reinforcing factors, the elderly’s health perception was solely found statistical difference at a level of significance of 0.05. All enabling factors - caregiving from both family and local authorities - had statistical relationship with quality of life of the elderly at significance level 0.05. Therefore, the local authorities should play a crucial role in delivering the projects related to elderly’s health self-awareness in order to increase physical and mental health awareness for the elderly and society at large.