Abstract
When getting old, health usually becomes decelerating. Generally, it is believed that health literacy
could replenish the elderly to good quality of life; hence the research tried to prove this belief. This study
is a descriptive research comprising two objectives. Firstly, it aimed to investigate the level of the elderly’s
health literacy according to the ABCDE behavioral campaign by the Ministry of Public Health (A: Alcohol
abandon, B: Baccy, no tobacco smoking, C: Coping with emotion, D: Diet consumption, and E: Exercise).
Secondly, the research examined the relationship between health literacy and the quality of life of the
elderly in the Central Region of the Northeast. The research was done with 600 elderly living in Roi-et,
Khon Kaen, Mahasarakham and Kalasin. The data were collected by interviewing conducted during January
to March, 2015 and were analyzed by frequency, percentage, mean, standard deviation and Pearson’s
correlation coefficient. The results revealed that the overall level of the elderly health literacy according to
the campaign was low but the quality of life of the elderly was high. The relationship between health
literacy and quality of life of the elderly was positive (r=0.305, p<0.01). From the findings, the researcher
suggested that there should urgently be wider assessment of the elderly health literacy at both individual
and community levels in order to know the real health status of the elderly. The result of the wider assessment
will be useful for creating qualified strategic plan appropriate to the situation of the elderly increase
in the future. The strategic plan in the future should focus on urgent needs in developing the elderly’s
skills such as; information access, communication, and media literacy.
