Development of Optimal Self-care Behavior of Seniors in a Senior Club, Bangtoey Sub-District, Sampran District, Nakhon Pathom Province

Abstract

This research was to develop optimal self-care behavior among seniors in the senior
club, Bangtoey sub-district, Sampran district, Nakhon Pathom Province by implementing
health promotion campaign. This study is a mixed-method design, quantitative and participatory action researches were employed to fulfill the research objectives. A study population comprises of 231 seniors (aged 60 years old or above) in a senior club of Bangtoey sub-District, Nakhon Pathom Province. The researcher collected information on illness condition (i.e., congenital disease), using a questionnaire responded by 197 seniors,
recruiting by a simple random sampling technique. In addition, seventy-seven and 38 seniors who attended all health promotion campaigns were purposively recruited into the study of a trend of illness condition after each optimal health promotion campaign and the comparison study of a pre-and-post hypertension condition of senior who has a chronic hypertension condition. The findings revealed that most seniors have hypertension condition (69%), followed by physical pain and aches (45.2%). The research provided four self-care behavior campaigns for seniors, in total of 12 hours, from October 2012 to January 2013. The Least square method predicted a downward trend of illness condition among seniors in January 2014. Moreover, an analysis of blood pressure assessment of seniors who have a chronic hypertension condition revealed that their blood pressure values significantly decreased in post self-care campaign.