KNOWLEDGE REGARDING AN ACCESS TO UNIVERSAL COVERAGE SCHEME AMONG THE ELDERLY IN MUANG DISTRICT, RATCHABURI PROVINCE, THAILAND

Background: Not only the population who lack to access the health facilities but the ageing population also are the big global problem with the significantly affect to every system, especially health care system. The purposes of this study were access the level of knowledge regarding an access to universal coverage and examine the association between socio-demographic characteristics factor and knowledge regarding an access to universal coverage among the elderly, Muang district, Ratchaburi province, Thailand. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted during April - July 2015, to assess and examine the level of knowledge regarding an access to universal coverage scheme among the 440 elderly > 60 years old. The participants were selected by using simple random sampling technique and structure questionnaire for interview. One-way analysis of variance was used to analyze the association between independent and dependent variables. Results: The study showed that aged ranged 60 - 92 years old, most age group was 60 - 90 years old (61.9%). For the level of knowledge regarding an access to universal coverage scheme among the elderly was in moderate and high level (55.7%). The association showed occupation (p-value = 0.010), highest education level (p-value = 0.000), and number of people in family (p-value = 0.020) had the statistically significant with the level of knowledge regarding access to universal coverage scheme among the elderly at p-value level < 0.05. Conclusions: This study suggested improvement in health education and health promotion among the elderly about the benefits to access the universal coverage to improve quality of elderly and improve the effectiveness of the universal coverage scheme.