IMPROVING HEALTH-RELATED QUALITY OF LIFE AMONG RURAL OLDER PEOPLE: A COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION APPROACH

Health promotion has been recognized as a strategy that aids older people in living longer lives, decreasing dependency on others and improving their quality of life. To improve their sustainable development and better quality of life, the community and older people need to discover and explore an appropriate model for health promotion. The aim of this study was to develop a community participation intervention to improve health-related quality of life issues among older people. This study was conducted in one Sub-district of Khon Kaen Province, Thailand. The older people sample group was 522. A participatory approach was adopted and a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods was used through a developed intervention program which discovered three activities: the sport flexibility exercise program, health education and older people meeting forum. This study used Health Related Quality of Life (HRQOL) Thai version measurement (Cronbach's alpha of 0.92) for evaluating the outcome. Outcome data was collected by well trained interviewers. The data abstraction and interview forms were checked and double entered into the EPI INFO 6 before the data was transferred into SPSS for analysis. The response rate was 91.41 percent. The sample group consisted of more females than males. The mean age of sample was 69.17.+/- 7.13 year old. Most sample older people had finished primary school (89.7%) Half of the respondents were married, and 40% were widows. This study found that post intervention average HRQOL's score was statistically significant higher than pre intervention at the level of .001. The findings of the study show that substantial improvement of quality of life can be derived by the community.