Factors Related to the Performance of Village Health Volunteers on Consumer Protection in Public Health, Praprom District, Nakhon Sri Thammarat Province

Abstract

The objectives of this survey research were to study performance of village health volunteers (VHVs) on consumer protection in public health and identify factors associated with the level of the performance of the VHVs. It was conducted in Praprom District, Nakhon Si Thammarat province. The calcuated sample size was 260, and the samples were VHVs who had worked not less than 1 year. It was found that average age of the VHVs was 49.78 years old, and the average duration of VHVs’ work was 14.41 years. The performance on consumer protection in public health was at moderate level; and the factors significantly associated with the performance were the duration of VHVs’ work, supportive factors, maintenance factors and motivation factors (p<0.05). The four factors had predictive power of 33.5 percent (p<0.05). Problems of the performance on consumer protection were the use of non-standard pot in noodle shops and the distribution of illegal health products. The authors recommended that local admin-istration organization, community leaders and related stakeholders should take active role in executing public health consumer protection in the community.