Social Welfare Requirements among Elderly in Pakplee District, Nakhon Nayok Province

Abstract

The objective of this research was to study social welfare requirements among the elderly in Pakplee district of Nakhon Nayok Province, and to compare social welfare requirements of the elderly with regard to age, gender, marital status, educational level, income, family relations, residence, membership of elderly club, and assessment of the elderly on ability to perform daily routine activities. The study population were the elderly over 60 years of age who had their name listed in the census registration, or those who lived for more than 6 months in Pakplee district. There were 368 despondences selected through stratified random sampling from 4,628 population in all 7 sub-districts. A set of structured questionnaire was used as research instrument in this study. The reliability of the questionnaire was at Cronbach's alpha coefficient of 0.953. Descriptive statistics were used to compute percentage, mean and standard deviation for demographic baseline characteristics. The student t-test was used to compare mean between 2 groups.

The research findings revealed that most of the elderly were female. Approximately, 56.5% of them were married and 28% were at the age between 60-65 years-old; 78% were at primary education level; and 63% of them had monthly income less than or equals to 5,000 baht. The percentage of the elderly with adequate saving were 59%; and 47.8% of them obtained additonal income by their own efforts. Most of the elderly lived with their family and their spouses (58.2%), and had their residences in sub-district area.

Most of them applied for membership of elderly club. For the ability assessments of the elderly with regard to ability to perform daily routine activities, the results showed that most of them were in social-affiliated groups (85.2%). Among the 7 social welfare requirements for the elderly in Pakplee district, the level of overall needs was high (mean=4.05); and the highest requirements were (1) to have occupation and income, and (2) to obtain elderly care allowances and funeral arrangement support (both with the mean of 4.42), followed by medical and public health support (mean=4.20), and public utility and security services (mean=4.12). Recommendation for provincial public health administrators was to emphasize on the following issues: (1) integration of elderly task in accordance with the mission of each sector (ministry and department), (2) to provide social welfare support for all people aged over 60-year-old in order to assure their well-being, and (3) to help the elderly to thoroughly and equally getting access to the assistance specified in the Elderly Act of Thailand.