HEALTH BEHAVIOR AND HEALTH NEED ASSESSMENT AMONG ELDERLY IN RURAL COMMUNITY OF THAILAND: A SEQUENTIAL EXPLANATORY MIXED METHODS STUDY

Effective intervention in promoting health among elderly needs an evidence base. The aim of this study was to determine factors influencing health behaviors as well as to explore health needs among the elderly. The explanatory sequential design was conducted in 2 phases. The first phase was a cross-sectional survey with a sample of 360 elderly selected by simple random sampling. The second phase was a qualitative study conducted on 40 participants selected as extreme cases to participate in an in-depth interview and focus group discussion. The resulted showed that a majority of elderly (63.3%) had health behavior practice at moderate level. Multiple regression analysis revealed that 32 percent of variance of health behavior could be explained by education level, social support, being a member in the community, and co-morbidity. These were the major predictors of health behavior. In the qualitative phases, diabetes was identified as a priority health problem with the risk factors of unhealthy eating behavior, physical inactivity, lack of peer support, and stress. In conclusion, this study confirms the importance of education level, social support, being a member in community and co-morbidity, the variables that play a role in the health behaviors of elderly. Diabetes was identified as priority health problems. Further health programs need to emphasize on behavior modification on healthy eating behavior,physical activity, facilitated peer support group, and stress control skills to promote health of elderly.