Health status and bio-indicators among elderly people in rural areas, Thailand.

OBJECTIVE

This community based cross-sectional study design aimed to assess health status among people aged > or = 60 years living in rural areas of northern Thailand.

MATERIAL AND METHOD

The questionnaires, physical examination, and 5 milliliters of blood specimen had been obtained. The face-to-face interview was conducted by trained interviewers and physical examination made by physician. A Chi-square test and multiple logistic regression were used to determine significant association at alpha = 0.05.

RESULTS

Three hundred twenty eight subjects were recruited into the study: 60.7% had chronic diseases, 73.2% received health care at health promoting hospitals, 32.1% received regular medication, 85.4% had abnormality of mobility, 30.5% had cataract, and 11.6% had hearing loss. Females had smoked longer than males (p-value < 0.05), but males had drank alcohol longer than females (p-value < 0.05). In this group, 12.2% had Cholesterol > or = 251 mg/dl, 27.5% had Triglyceride > or = 171 mg/dl, 10.5% had FBS > or = 121 mg/dl, 15.4% had SGPT > or = 311 U/L, and 21.5% had Uric acid > or = 7.1 mg/dl.

CONCLUSION

Effective health promoting program is still necessary for improving elderly health in rural Thailand.