Guidelines for Managing Elderly Welfare Affecting Quality of Life of Elderly People in Thailand’s Private Sector: A Case Study of Bangkok and Metropolitan Areas

Abstract

This research aimed to study: 1) the level of the private sector elderly welfare management in Thailand, 2) the level of quality of life of the elderly in the private sector, and 3) analyze the relationship between welfare management and the quality of life of the elderly in the private sector in Thailand. This study employed a mixed-methods research design.
The population consisted of 400 elderly people in the private sector. The research instrument was a questionnaire with a reliability coefficient of 0.733, and for the qualitative component, 16 informants were interviewed using semi-structured interviews. Descriptive statistics used for data analysis included mean, percentage, frequency distribution, and standard deviation. Inferential statistics employed Multiple Regression Analysis. Research findings revealed that:
1) Government welfare management comprised welfare planning, implementation of welfare plans, monitoring of welfare plan implementation, and improvement of the welfare management system, with an overall high level. 2) The quality of life of elderly people consisted of self-reliance in physical, psychological, income, and social relationship aspects, with an overall moderate level, especially lowest in income. 3) Elderly welfare management affected the quality of life of elderly people in the private sector in Thailand. All four independent variables (government welfare planning, implementation of government welfare plans, monitoring of government welfare plan implementation, and improvement of the government welfare system) influenced the quality of life of elderly people in the private sector in Thailand, accounting for 9.3 percent with R² = 0.93, thus accepting the research hypothesis.