MANAGEMENT MODEL FOR HEALTH SECURITY OF THE ELDERLY

Abstract

The objectives of this research included: 1) to study the relationship of personal factors, welfare for the elderly, problems and needs of the elderly, public policies, measures and the health security management model of the eastern Bangkok area; 2) to analyze the health security management model of the elderly in the eastern Bangkok area to be continuously effective; 3) to study common factors for predicting the health security of the elderly in the eastern Bangkok area. It was a mixed methods research. The sampling group were 384 elderly people selected through probability random sampling and 15 key informants through interviews. The research instruments were questionnaires consisting of: personal information; health security model of the elderly; and interview forms. All the instruments were tested through the Item Objective Congruence Index by 3 experts with the total validity = .82. The reliability was tested through Cronbach’s Alpha Coefficient with the total value of reliability =.85. The statistics used in data analysis were percentage, mean, standard deviation, hypothesis testing through Pearson’s correlation coefficient values and multiple regression with statistical significance at .05. The findings of this research were as follows. 1) The overall management model of health security of elderly was at moderate level (= 3.73, SD = .53). 2) Public policies and measures had a positive relation at a moderate level with health security management model for the elderly with statistical significance at .01 (r =.648^**, p = .000). 3) Common factors for predicting the health security of the elderly including variables in welfare for the elderly, problems and needs of the elderly, public policies and measures. All these three variables could commonly predict the health security of the elderly with statistical significance (p-value =.000) that could explain the variance of the management model of health security for the elderly at 52.5 percent (R² = 0.525). This research indicated that the relationship and factors for predicting the welfare of the elderly, problems and needs of the elderly, public policies and measures affected the management model of health security for the elderly. This could be applied in providing services for the elderly that the elderly themselves needed the support from officials or healthcare teams in accordance with way of life, culture and the values of the elderly in society.