Factors influencing decision to use of emergency medical services among older adults, Sisaket province

Main Article Content

Kanokporn Jatupornratanapun
Natthaya Boonmark

Abstract

Nowadays, aging societies increasingly tend to use emergency medical services
due to the aging process and declining health status. The older adults are at
greater risk of developing severe complications than people at other ages,
however their access to emergency medical services remains low, which leads to
an increase the incidence of disability and mortality. Older adults may have
certain factors that are associated with delayed or inappropriate use of
emergency medical services. This correlational predictive research aimed to
explore the decision to use emergency medical services and the factors
influencing decision to use emergency medical services among the older adults in
Sisaket province. Data were collected from 377 participants between September
and December 2024. The data collection instruments included: experience with
EMS questionnaire, health status perception questionnaire, perceived severity of
illness questionnaire, health literacy questionnaire, social support questionnaire
and the decision to use EMS questionnaire. The reliability was analyzed using
Cronbach’s alpha coefficient, which were .765, .723, .805, .846, .737 and .853
respectively. Data analysis was performed using multiple regression analysis.
The results revealed that decisions to use emergency medical services are at a
high level (mean=4.14, SD=.76) The factors of social support (β=.456) perceived
health status (β=.172), health literacy (β=.124) can jointly predict the decisions
to use emergency medical services by 51% (R2=.51) were significantly
(p-value<.05). The findings of this study concluded that public health agencies
develop programs to promote health perception, health literacy and social
support to increase appropriate and timely utilization of EMS among the older
adults.

Article Details

How to Cite
Jatupornratanapun, K., & Boonmark, N. . (2025). Factors influencing decision to use of emergency medical services among older adults, Sisaket province. Vajira Nursing Journal, 27(2), 105–121. retrieved from https://he02.tci-thaijo.org/index.php/vnj/article/view/277661
Section
research article

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