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The purposes of this research were to investigate the level of well-being, lifestyle of the healthy elderly and to propose a guideline for the healthy elderly in the eastern region of Thailand.
Data were collected by a questionnaire assessing well-being status of 384 elders in the eastern region. Eleven healthy elders were in-depth interviewed, and 10 experts consisting of health promotion personnel, health volunteers, the elderly, educators, and physicians working in health promotion field were interviewed using focus group approach.
The results were as follows:
1. The overall of well-being status of the elderly in the eastern region was at a high level.
Concerning each dimension, the results showed that the spiritual well-being dimension was in the highest level, followed by social well-being, psychological well-being, physical well-being, and environment well-being, respectively.
2. Lifestyle of the healthy elderly in the eastern region consisted of; 1) living in good
environment, such as accessibility to health promotion services for all aged-groups provided by
health personnel; safety and clean food resources; comfortable, clean and safety housing; appropriate
waste disposal system in community; clean water supply; and fresh air without pollution; 2) having
responsibility to their health; 3) practicing regular exercise; 4) selecting good nutrition in terms
of appropriateness in volume and quality of various kinds of food, especially fruits and vegetable
as well as avoiding unhealthy food; 5) having effective stress management with positive thinking
and using sense of humor, spending time on leisure, practicing based on religious doctrines;
6) good relationship with family and other people; 7) purposive spiritual needs, such as taking care
of grand-children, high self-esteem and strongly believe in religions and; 8) using local wisdom
หน้าที่ 92 วารสารการศึกษาและการพัฒนาสังคม ปีที่ 10 ฉบับที่ 1 ปีการศึกษา 2557
to promote health, such as using herbs, consuming local food cooked by themselves and living in
unpolluted environment.
3. A guideline for the healthy elderly in the eastern region composed of three levels. Firstly,
the individual level, the elderly should perform health behaviors, including annual physical checkup,
seeking information about health care practice, support from their family members, daily
exercise, good nutrition Consumption habits, adequate nutrition for community dwelling in each
meal with a lot of fish, vegetable, and fruits, avoiding unhealthy food, practicing religious activity,
building good relationships within family and community, and understanding their own value
distributed to the family and community. In addition, the elderly should use the local wisdom to
promote health, eat local food, cook for themselves, stay in the environment with fresh air, and
perform daily activity by themselves. Secondly, at the community level, in their community, the
elderly should have a place to do exercise, recreational area, a group of people managing waste
disposal and reuse, management of health promotion clubs, volunteer association, community
model for the local wisdom practice and natural way of life. The last was the organizational
level. In order to promote health for the elderly, the Ministry of Public Health should set policies to provide immunization covering all age groups of population and also have policies to prevent newly emerged diseases. Moreover, the Ministry of Education should set policies to promote healthy food in school. Furthermore, the Department of Mental Health, Ministry of Public Health should set policies to provide mental health nurses to sub-districts to promote mental health for all age groups of people. |
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