Quality of Life of the Elderly in Klaeng Kachet Municipality, Mueang District, Rayong Province

Abstract

The objectives of this article were to evaluate competency, to study the quality of life, and to compare the quality of life of the elderly in Klaeng Kachet Municipality, Mueang District, Rayong Province. The sample was 267 elderly people in Klaeng Kachet Municipality. The data collection tool was a questionnaire. Data were analyzed using frequency and percentage. The hypotheses were tested with T-test statistics, F-test statistics, and Welch and Brown-Forsythe tests. Comparison of the differences between pairs was done with Dunnett's C statistics.

Findings from the competency evaluation of the elderly by functional ability assessment with the Barthel Acitivities of Daily Living (ADL) Index and the evaluation of their competency in the Lawton Instrumental Activities of Daily Living (IADL) Index showed that most of the elderly had the ability to live in the independence from any help level and had a medium level of quality of life. A comparison of the elderly’s quality of life was found that the elderly with different education, income adequacy, competency in the Barthel ADL Index, and competency in the Lawton IADL Index had different quality of life’s scores with the statistical significance at the 0.05 level.