Accessibility to Health Care Service of the Elderly In Bang Pa-in District, Ayutthaya Province

Abstract

This quantitative descriptive study aimed to evaluate accessibility to health service according to the elderly benefits package of the National Health Security Office (NHSO) and to identify its related factors of elderly resided in Bang-pa-in District of Ayutthaya province. Data was obtained by interviewing 200 well and home bound elderly randomly recruited into the study. Descriptive statistics and logistic regression were applied data analysis. The significance level was set at 5%.

The results showed that 68.0% of the elderly were female, aged 60-69 years and 7.5% living alone. An average member per family was 4 people. Majority was Buddhism and resided in his/her own home. 61.5% completed compulsory level of education and 62.5% work currently. 75.0% reported of participating in community activities. In regards to persons assisted whenever having sickness, 72.5% and 37.5% from family members and health personnel respectively. 68.0% informed of having chronic diseases and 56.5% was at high level of perception on health service according to the elderly benefit package. 59.0% was at good level of accessibility to the health services. Factors significantly related to the accessibility age, gender, religion, participation in community activities, chronic diseases, and caregiver whenever having sickness, and perception on health service according to the elderly benefit package.