FACTORS RELATED TO HEALTH CARE BEHAVIOR AMONG THE ELDERLY, BANMAI SUB-DISTRICT, MUEANG DISTRICT, NAKHON RATCHASIMA PROVINCE

Abstract

The objective of this descriptive research was to determine factors related to health care among the elderly in Banmai Sub-district, Mueng  District, Nakhon Ratchasima  Province. The sample consisted of 362 elders. Systematic Random Sampling was used in this study. The research instrument was the questionnaire  with internal consistency congruence during  0.67 to 1.00  and coefficient alpha of  knowledge about the elderly health care,  attitude about health care, access to health care service,  influence from the others , and health care behavior  =0.76, 0.83, 0.97, 0.96, and 0.79 consequently. Data was collected during November and December 2016.Data was analyzed by frequency distribution, percentage, mean, standard deviation, minimum and maximum value, and Pearson’s product moment correlation coefficients. The results revealed that;

The sample majority were female (72.7%), with average age of 74.02 years,  ranged from 60 to 107 years old, 63.0% of  the sample graduated under elementary school, 73.2% were retired, with average income between 700 - 3,000 Baht. 61.9 % of the sample had knowledge about the elderly health care at the moderate level  as well as attitude about health care were at the moderate  level accounted for 45.6%.  69.6 % of the sample could access to health care service at the moderate level  as well as influence from the others were at the moderate  level accounted for 37.6 %. Finally, 43.6 % of the sample had health care behavior at moderate level. Access to health care sources and influence from the others had related to health care behavior of the elderly, whereby knowledge and attitude about health care had not related to health care behavior of the elderly.