Exploring the Influencing Factors on Living Alone and Social Isolation among Older Adults in Rural Areas of Thailand

Iamtrakul, P (通讯作者),Thammasat Univ, Fac Architecture & Planning, Ctr Excellence Urban Mobil Res & Innovat, Paholyothin St, Pathum Thani 12120, Thailand.
2022-11
Older adults living alone present a vulnerable physical and mental health group with public health and service needs. This situation has risen and is therefore expected to increase calls for urgent attention from concerned authorities. This article focuses on the study of factors related to different living arrangements of older adults and also examines the extent to which baseline variables explained the association between living alone and social isolation characteristics. A questionnaire survey restricted to respondents aged 60 years and over, living in Ban Phaeo, Samutsakhon, Thailand, was scoped for data collection. Older adults living alone and in co-residence (living together) constitute a total of 1162 samples. The binary logistic regression model was applied to examine the association between living alone and social isolation characteristics. The result found that factors relating to older adults' different living arrangements are marital status, household members numbers, level of dependency, and type of caregivers. An association was found between the characteristics of living alone and social isolation in three relative variables, which are age, activities of daily living (ADLs), and type of caregivers. In conclusion, household living arrangements have different related factors like marital status, where a single or divorced person is more likely to live alone. Furthermore, it is also influenced by the need for caregiving on the part of the older adult or family members; particularly, their children typically emerge as the unpaid assistance from families. When only a sample of older adults living alone with social isolation is considered, it was discovered that with the advancing age of older adults living alone, whether single or married, encountered problems with the activities of daily living (ADLs). This set of people rarely goes out to perform activities outside their home and seldom attend social and physical activities. This could lead to a risk of social isolation with a greater risk of physical and mental health problems, including the well-being of older adults living alone in later life. Thus, family caregivers play a key role as a primary source of support to prevent older adults from being socially isolated, which has become an integral part of our healthcare system in promoting physical, mental, and functional health among older adults in a positive way.
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH AND PUBLIC HEALTH
卷号:19|期号:21
收录类别:SCIE
语种
英语
来源机构
Thammasat University
资助信息
This research was funded by the National Research Council of Thailand (TU2017015) and Thammasat University Research fund under the TSRI, Contract No. TUFF19/2564 and TUFF24/2565, for the project of AI Ready City Networking in RUN, based on the RUN Digital Cluster collaboration scheme.
被引频次(WOS)
0
被引频次(其他)
0
180天使用计数
5
2013以来使用计数
5
EISSN
1660-4601
出版年
2022-11
DOI
10.3390/ijerph192114572
学科领域
循证公共卫生
关键词
activities of daily living aging society chronic diseases socioeconomic status urbanization
资助机构
National Research Council of Thailand(National Research Council of Thailand (NRCT)) Thammasat University Research fund under the TSRI
WOS学科分类
Environmental Sciences Public, Environmental & Occupational Health