Societal Correlates of Healthy Ageing in Thailand
Abstract
One of the major challenges of Thailand’s ageing society is that, although life expectancy has continued to increase, active life expectancy (defined here as the expected years of independent living) has not increased at the same pace and has instead declined. This trend is primarily attributable to the rising prevalence of non-communicable diseases (NCDs), which adversely affects physical functioning, the ability to perform daily activities, and the quality of life of older adults. This study aims to examine the societal determinants of healthy ageing in Thailand. Self-rated health satisfaction is employed as a proxy measure of healthy ageing among survey respondents. Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) and Ordered Probit models are employed to identify the factors associated with healthy ageing. The findings reveal that the determinants of healthy ageing vary significantly across age groups and geographical areas. For example, while urban residents report significantly lower comparative self-rated health satisfaction than rural residents in the overall sample, age-stratified analyses reveal heterogeneous effects. Urban Baby Boomers (aged ≥54 years) report higher comparative self-rated health satisfaction than their rural counterparts, whereas the opposite pattern is observed among Generations X and Y. These results suggest that individuals at different stages of life and those living in different provinces and residential settings (urban and rural) face distinct challenges that require differentiated environmental, economic, and public service policy responses. The findings therefore support the decentralization of authority to local governments, enabling them to work collaboratively with the private sector and households to design place-based interventions that promote healthy ageing and effectively address the priority challenges and needs of their communities.
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