Factors Related to the Level of Cough Problems in Elderly with Common Cold, Kok Tum Subdistrict, Dongluang District, Mukdahan Province

Abstract

          Cough symptom mostly comes from respiratory diseases. Using a cough syrup from gooseberry reduced cough safely. This mix method research aimed to describe cough characteristics, knowledge and health behavior and evaluate the factors related to the level of cough problems in the elderly influenza patients diagnosed and treated by a medical nurse in Ban San Wae Health Promoting hospital, Kok Tum Subdistrict, Dongluang District, Mukdahan province from November 2021 to March 2022. The samples were 70 patients enrolled by simple random sampling and 30 key informants. Data were collected by structured interviews and the in–depth interview using the guideline questions. Quantitative data were analyzed by descriptive statistics and Pearson’s correlation. The qualitative data were analyzed by content analysis.

           The results found that most of samples were female (82.86%). The mean ± S.D. of age was 67.90 ± 0.28 years. Of these, 54.28% had knowledge and services satisfaction at a high level and 51.43% had cough care behaviors at a high level. They had a moderate cough problem (x ̅ = 3.17, S.D. = 0.56). The factors significantly related to the level of cough problems in the elderly influenza patients were the frequency of throat irritation, frequency of cough, service satisfaction, knowledge of influenza, herbal usefulness, and self–care behavior (p < 0.05).

          Keywords: Common cold, Cough, Elderly, Herb