Abstract
This paper aimed to study the elderly families situations and factors contributing to the elderly
families hardship in 10 provinces of Thailand. The study applied quantitative and qualitative methods to
collect data; from selected 4,561 elderly families using quantitative method and another 214 using focus groups interview with community officers and families with home dwelling elderly. The collected data
was analyzed using descriptive statistics and content analysis.
Overall, the study found that half of the surveyed families were families with the elderly who looked
after children in the families, following elderly living alone and living with their spouse respectively.
There were more than half of the elderly who had ability for self-caring and moderate caring for other
members. Level of relationship among other families members were no significant different at all levels;
good/moderate/bad. There was 1 in 3 of the elderly who responded that they had poor economic selfreliance.
For the type of support, the elderly dwelling with disabled person reported the highest hardship
and the need of dietary/feeding was the most expected support; whilst the elderly dwelling with children
reported highest need on financial support. Factors having high impact on hardship of the elderly families
were residential area, family profile, income, asset, saving, debt, and burden of caring on any family
member of elderly/child/disabled (p-value <0.001), including mental state, 4 basic needs of life, family/
community relationship, ability to access rights and social welfare.
The study recommended that social welfare should be fair, systematic including enhancing community
participation in promoting health and well-being among aging people. Lastly, further in-depth study
on factors influencing family health and caring for the elderly ought to be accelerated to promote better
quality of life for the elderly.
