Clinic@home

Abstract

Objective: The purpose of this research was to study self-care behaviors and factors affecting self-care behaviors of elderly people with diabetes in Dan Makham Tia District, Kanchanaburi Province and study the results of the service system arrangement with support from public health personnel and their families.

Methods: The study is a combination of quantitative and qualitative research. The samples were elderly people aged 60 years or over who received treatment at Health Promoting Hospitals in the responsible area of Dan Makham Tia District and Danmakhamtia Hospital in Dan Makham Tia District, Kanchanaburi Province, and selection by using a simple random method included 307 participants. Data were collected by using questionnaires and in-depth interviews and were analyzed by computer program using descriptive statistical analysis. The correlation was analyzed by chi-square value, Pearson correlation coefficient and Fisher exact test, and qualitatively analyzed by content analysis. T-test analysis was used for a comparative study of self-care behaviors of the elderly people with diabetes in Dan Makham Tia District, Kanchanaburi.

Results: When looking for a relationship, it was found that personal factors were age, income, education level, gaining support from the group of people as a whole, knowledge of how to act during sickness, perception of overall health status, perceived likelihood of risk and severity of complications, perceived benefits in self-care, self-care perception, and perception of self-efficacy. There was a correlation between aforementioned the factors and self-care behaviors of the elderly with diabetes with statistical significance at the .05 level and when comparing the knowledge of self-practice while having diabetes, perception of overall health status, overall support, and overall self-care behavior were found to be different between the experimental and the control group. There was no statistically significant difference between the experimental and the control group in an item of perception of self-care behavior while having diabetes.

Conclusion: Comparison of self-care behaviors of the elderly with diabetes in Dan Makham Tia District, Kanchanaburi that has been organized at home visit service by a multidisciplinary team revealed that the elderly with diabetes, the experimental group with diabetes had the knowledge to practice themselves, perception of overall health status, overall social support, and self-care behaviors after receiving the program were different from those before the experiment at statistical significance at the .05 level.