Quality of Life of the Disabled in Tha Yang District Phetchaburi Province

Abstract

The disabled are an underprivileged group in the society, and they deserve to gain assistance so as to enable them to be self-dependent and live their life happily in the society. The purpose of this study is to explore quality of life of the disabled in Thayang district, Phetchaburi province, as well as make a comparison analysis of quality of life of the disabled with different factors of demographic characteristics, type of disability, and self-care. The sample consist of 347 disabled people in Thayang district, Phetchaburi province who were randomly selected by the stratified sampling. The data were collected by the questionnaire, and analyzed by SPSS program, percentage, and arithmetic mean. The comparison analysis of quality of life was made by t-test and one-way ANOVA. The results of the study revealed that the overall quality of life of the disabled was at a moderate level

(75.2%), and their quality of life in a physical, psychological, social relationship, and environmental aspect were

all at a moderate level (76.2%, 65.5%, 57.0%, and 70.4% respectively). The comparison analysis of the disabled

with different demographic characteristics, i.e., age, monthly income, type of disability, dressing, personal

hygiene, urination, excretion, and self-care during the menstruation period reported that these people had

different quality of life with a 0.05 level of statistical significance. In addition, the disabled needed the assistance

in relation to living allowance and career management in order to improve their quality of life.

The findings of the study suggested that the quality of life of the disabled should be improved, whereby

the government agencies should formulate the policy and action plan to enhance quality of life through the

establishment of partnership networks with the private sector and organizations in the community regarding

proper employment, vocational training, training courses provided for family members to ensure appropriate care,

public health services arrangement for comprehensive accessibility to the services, promotion of welfare and

respect shown to the disabled in the community in order to contribute to sustainable well-being and good quality

of life of the disabled.