Valuable Living and Quality of Life for the Elderly in the 21st Century

Abstract

From the situation that Thai society is currently facing, whether the working age has to take care of the elderly, the elderly are more alone, the elderly depend on their children's income decreasing, There is a tendency for a shortage of formal labor, the state has increased expenditure on health and pension for the elderly. Therefore, the purposes of this research were: 1) to study the valuable living of the elderly in the 21^st century. 2) to study the quality of life of the elderly in the 21^st century, and 3) to test valuable living on the quality of life of the elderly in the 21^st century. Collecting data from 400 elderly in the Northeast and a set of questionnaires were the research tool. Statistics used for data analysis were mean, standard deviation, multiple correlation analysis, and stepwise multiple regression analysis. The results revealed the following findings; 1) elderly had opinions about valuable living in general aspect at a high level and had an average of 3.97, the averages are arranged in descending order as follows: knowledge building and good attitude aspect had an average of 3.99, the aspect of promoting a feeling of satisfaction aspect had an average of 3.98, behavioral aspects that support longevity aspect had an average of 3.94., 2) elderly had opinions about quality of life in general aspect at a high level and had an average of 3.98, the averages are arranged in descending order as follows: mental aspect had an average of 4.07, social integration aspect had an average of 4.05, rights and liberties aspect had an average of 3.95, self development aspect had an average of 3.89, and physical aspect had an average of 3.87, and 3) valuable living had positive relationship and impact on quality of life of the elderly in the 21^st century and the forecast in standard score (b) form of 0.558, 0.239, and 0.164, and has a multiple correlation coefficient (R) of 0.792, a forecasting power (R²) of 0.627, and a forecasting power of 62.70%.