The Elderly Caregiver Competency Development to Promote Long-term Elderly Health in Community

Abstract

The numbers of elderly are increasing rapidly in Thailand. Aging societyimpacted healthy lifestyles of living. This research aimed to develop the elderlycaregiver competency to strengthen elderly health and life-long living. Theconcepts of health promotion model were investigated by methods of survey andfocus group discussion process. The elderly caregiver competency was exploredand developed in the Lower Northern part of Thailand. The samples were elderlycaregiver and elderly in 2 steps using multistage random sampling and selectivesamples. The instruments of this research were questionnaire and record sheets.The statistical techniques were the frequency, percentage and mean. The researchfindings showed that the caregivers were adults and aging that have to take careof elderly who were moderately old and very old age with health status was at amoderate level. The conclusion was that the elderly caregivers were induced in theknowledge program to promote long-term elderly health in the community. Therecommendation was the participatory activities with a community organization,various health communication in a community were needed to develop the modelof the elderly caregiver competency development. For further research, it shouldapply the elderly caregiver competency development program to the other areas. Keywords: Health Education, health promotion, aging, descriptive design, Thailand