Abstract
This action research was aimed at assessing the health behavior of members of the
health club, Wang Sammoh district, Udon Thani Province. One hundred and ninety-eight
members were purposively selected to answer a questionnaire and to be physically examined
during the period from September 2006 to October 2007. This study employed
both qualitative methods, including focus group discussion, and quantitative methods in
collecting and analyzing data using descriptive statistics: average, percentage and chisquare.
The results of small group meetings found that 86 percent of the members of the
club had diabetes mellitus and/or hypertension; 90 percent of them wanted to know the
causes of leg-pain and back-pain. A method for self-care in a communal way for solving
health problems would be to buy medical supplies from drug stores in conjunction with
promoting the use of herbs.
General data analysis revealed that 79.3 percent of the subjects were women (average
age was 36 years old), 30.81 percent had chronic illnesses or personal diseases;
average body weight before entering to the club was 55.9 kilograms and after was 56.4
kilograms.
The researcher and his team used the results of this research for devising a plan in
such a way as to create two projects: (1) one for adapting and changing heath behavior in
exercise and health checks for monks, civil servants, beneficiaries (insurees) of the social
security assurance scheme; and (2) the other, related to abdominal fat, by using tactics
concerning how to eat food properly; how to exer cise appropriately depending on age
and health status. These projects would be monitored and evaluated every three months
and it could be expected that the people of Wang Sammoh would have awareness about
developing their own health behavior in order to attain better physical, mental and social
health status.
