Variations in health status of the elderly in Thailand

This thesis presents results of an investigation of the variations in health in the elderly Thai between 2002 and 2007. The analyses are based on the Surveys of Elderly in Thailand in 2002 and 2007. Health at old age is one of the key concerns about population ageing in Thailand because older people are more frails. The differences in health status at old age between areas of residence, individual characteristics and time periods were investigated in this study. The variations of health in old age between areas of residence were measured using multilevel models and the results showed that the differences of health in old age between areas of residences are lower than the differences from individual characteristics.

The rise of expected life years lead to the concern about whether these extra years will be spent in healthy or unhealthy life. To investigate trends of health in old age Thai, this study adopted healthy life expectancy calculated by Sullivan‟s method as the health measure. Because health has many dimensions, this study calculated healthy life expectancy based on self-rated health, self-care disability and mobility disability to represent different aspects of general health and disability in later life. The results showed that trends in healthy life expectancy varied by age, gender and the health indicators applied.

A population projection for Thailand for 2000-2050 was calculated using the cohort components method. The results showed that based on the assumptions that fertility and mortality continue to decline as recently observed, the number and proportion of old people aged 60 and over will increase rapidly particularly the older old people aged 80 and over and old age women. The disability projection for Thailand in 2000-2050 also showed a large increase in the absolute number and percentage of disabled old age people.

The trends in numbers of old age people and their health in the future result in rises of health expenditure in old age and in the demands for health care services, especially for long-term care and social security. The results from this study then inform policy making and plans for care of the elderly in Thailand in the future.