Mental health conditions of the elderly with chronic diseases Chaiyaphum Province ภาวะสุขภาพจิตของผู้สูงอายุที่เป็นโรคเรื้อรัง จังหวัดชัยภูมิ

Abstract

Abstract

            The objectives of this study were to evaluate mental health of the elderly with chronic illness in community. Two hundred and thirty-four older adults residing in Tambol Na siao, Amphoe Muang Chaiyaphom, Thailand were recruited using simple random sampling. The mental health evaluation tools were Suanprung Stress Test-20 and Thai Geriatric Depression Scale: TGDS. Statistics employed were frequency, percentage, mean, standard deviation, t-test, one way ANOVA.

The results showed that:

1. The most common health problems of the elderly was Hypertension (61.4%). Diabetes Mellitus (38.6%) was the second most common health problem.


2. Most of the elderly (76.35%) had moderate stress level, followed by high stress levels (19.9%) and mild stress (3.57%).


3. There was no depression up to 76.03% among the elderly with chronic illness. While depression consisted was mild (23.97%).


4. Education, occupation and income of elderly were associated with stress and depression with statistical significance at the level of 0.05, 0.01 and of 0.01 respectively.

Keywords: Mental Health, Chronic illness, Elderly