Social Engagement among Thai Older Persons with Visual or Hearing Impairment

Authors

  • Nara Khamkhom Ratchasuda College, Mahidol University
  • Paranee Visuttipun Ratchasuda College, Mahidol University

Keywords:

Social Engagement,, Visual Impairment, Children with Hearing Impairments in Early Stage, Thai Older Person

Abstract

Social engagement is an indicator to measure successful aging of older persons. However, older persons with visual and/or hearing impairment tend to disengage with society. Consequently, loneliness and pressure will erode their mental and physical health. Many scholars have investigated components influencing social engagement of older persons. However, studies related to social engagement of visually- and/or hearing-impaired Thai older persons are rare. That information is important if we are to apply knowledge to promote social engagement of older persons with visual and/or hearing impairment. Therefore, this study attempted to fill this knowledge gap. The analysis was based on analysis of secondary data from the 2014 Survey of Older Persons in Thailand, conducted by the Thai National Statistical Office (NSO) in 2014. The total study sample was 38,671 older persons age 60 years or older. Binary logit model was employed to investigate visual and/or hearing ability that had a statistically-significant relationship with social engagement of visual- and/or hearing-impaired older persons. The results show that visual impairment had no relationship with the level of social engagement. Older persons with hearing impairment were less likely to participate in community groups (OR = 0.885, 95%, CI = 0.803-0.975) and/or social activities (OR = 0.894, 95%, CI = 0.805-0.992) than older persons without hearing impairment. Deaf-blind older persons were also less likely to participate in community groups (OR=0.738,95%, CI=0.670-0.831) and/or village activities (OR=0.694, 95%, CI = 0.627-0.767) than older persons without deafness-blindness. Decreased physical and mental capacity due to geriatric conditions and lack of support from adult children are possible explanations as to why older persons in this study tended to participate less in social activities. The authors hope that the findings from this study help promote quality of life of older persons with hearing and visual impairment.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

Alma, M. A., Van der Mei, S. F., Melis-Dankers, B. J., Van Tilburg, T. G., Groothoff, J. W., & Suurmeijer, T. P. (2011). Participation of the elderly after vision loss. Disability and rehabilitation, 33(1), 63-72.

Aroogh, M. D., & Shahboulaghi, F. M. (2020). Social participation of older adults: A concept analysis. International journal of community based nursing and midwifery, 8(1), 55.

Bath, P. A., & Deeg, D. (2005). Social engagement and health outcomes among older people: introduction to a special section. European journal of ageing, 2(1), 24-30.

Bennett, K. M. (2002). Low level social engagement as a precursor of mortality among people in later life. Age and Ageing, 31(3), 165-168.

Brink, P., & Stones, M. (2007). Examination of the relationship among hearing impairment, linguistic communication, mood, and social engagement of residents in complex continuing-care facilities. The Gerontologist, 47(5), 633-641.

Crews, J. E., & Campbell, V. A. (2004). Vision impairment and hearing loss among community-dwelling older Americans: implications for health and functioning. American journal of public health, 94(5), 823-829.

Croezen, S., Haveman-Nies, A., Alvarado, V. J., Van’t Veer, P., & De Groot, C. P. G. M. (2009). Characterization of different groups of elderly according to social engagement activity patterns. JNHA-The Journal of Nutrition, Health and Aging, 13(9), 776-781.

Dalby, D. M., Hirdes, J. P., Stolee, P., Strong, J. G., Poss, J., Tjam, E. Y., ... & Ashworth, M. (2009). Characteristics of individuals with congenital and acquired deaf-blindness. Journal of Visual Impairment & Blindness, 103(2), 93-102.

Disability Experts of Florida. (2018). Difficulties the hearing impaired face every day. Retrieved from https://www.disabilityexpertsfl.com/blog/difficulties-the-deaf-face-every-day.

Envision. (2019). Challenges blind people face when living life. Retrieved from https://www.letsenvision.com/blog/challenges-blind-people-face-when-living-life.

Jampaklay, A. (2020). Statistics for social research. Nakhon-Pathom, Thailand: Institute for Population and Social Research, Mahidol University.

Jaiswal, A., Aldersey, H., Wittich, W., Mirza, M., & Finlayson, M. (2018). Participation experiences of people with deafblindness or dual sensory loss: A scoping review of global deafblind literature. PloS one, 13(9).

Kauffman, L. (2019). Social engagement and hearing loss. 2019 feature report, The hearing reviews.

Kimura, M., Yamazaki, S., Haga, H., & Yasumura, S. (2013). The prevalence of social engagement in the disabled elderly and related factors. ISRN Geriatrics, 2013.

Levasseur, M., Richard, L., Gauvin, L., & Raymond, É. (2010). Inventory and analysis of definitions of social participation found in the aging literature: Proposed taxonomy of social activities. Social science & medicine, 71(12), 2141-2149.

Lions Gate. (n.d.). The benefits of social engagement for seniors. Retrieved from https://lionsgateccrc.org/the-benefits-of-social-engagement-for-seniors/.

Luo, M., Ding, D., Bauman, A., Negin, J., & Phongsavan, P. (2020). Social engagement pattern, health behaviors and subjective well-being of older adults: an international perspective using WHO-SAGE survey data. BMC Public Health, 20(1), 1-10.

Mello, J. L. C., Souza, D. M. T., Chacara, R. A. L., Narita, R. S., & Chiminazo, L. F. S. (2018). Aging, fragility and palliative care: challenges of an emerging context. Hospice and Palliative Medicine International Journal, 2(1), 4.

Meulenkamp, T., Rijken, M., Cardol, M., Francke, A. L., & Rademakers, J. (2019). People with activity limitations’ perceptions of their health condition and their relationships with social participation and experienced autonomy. BMC Public Health, 19(1), 1-10.

Nastasi, J. (2019). The social participation of older adults living with a visual impairment. Physical & Occupational Therapy in Geriatrics, 37(4), 282-297.

National Resource Center for Engaging Older Adults. (n.d.). Social engagement for older adults, people with disabilities and caregivers during COVID-19: Results from a new poll of aging network and partner organization. Retrieved from https://static1. squarespace.com/static/5b855bd5cef372d1e9a8ef0e/t/60ff1dc7e66d19425f111cf3/1627332042053/engAGED+Data+Brief_Poll+Results-508.pdf.

National statistical office of Thailand. (2017). Report on the 2017 survey of the older persons in Thailand. Bangkok., Thailand: National statistical office.

Pei, Y., Gunawan, S. & Chich-Jen, S. (2014). Correlations between social engagement and quality of life of the older person in China. Revista Internacional de Sociología (RIS), Special Issue on Organizational Innovation, 72(Extra 2), 105-118.

Rainer, S. (2014). Social participation and social engagement of elderly people. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 116, 780-785.

Ramirez-Garibay, F., Olivarria, C. M., Aguilera, A. F. E., & Huegel, J. C. (2014). MyVox—Device for the communication between people: blind, deaf, deaf-blind and unimpaired. Proceedings of IEEE Global Humanitarian Technology Conference (GHTC 2014) (pp. 506-509). IEEE.

Rooth, M. A. (2017). The prevalence and impact of vision and hearing loss in the elderly. North Carolina medical journal, 78(2), 118-120.

Rosso, A. L., Taylor, J. A., Tabb, L. P., & Michael, Y. L. (2013). Mobility, disability, and social engagement in older adults. Journal of aging and health, 25(4), 617-637.

Shah, K., Frank, C. R., & Ehrlich, J. R. (2020). The association between vision impairment and social participation in community-dwelling adults: a systematic review. Eye, 34(2), 290-298.

Shukla, A., Cudjoe, T. K., Lin, F. R., & Reed, N. S. (2021). Functional hearing loss and social engagement among Medicare beneficiaries. The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, 76(1), 195-200.

Swenor, B. K., Lee, M. J., Varadaraj, V., Whitson, H. E., & Ramulu, P. Y. (2020). Aging with vision loss: a framework for assessing the impact of visual impairment on older adults. The Gerontologist, 60(6), 989-995.

Tukimin, S., Handayani, D., Alimin, Z., & Somad, P. (2019). Indonesia deaf and blind communication system (IDBC-system). Education and Information Technologies, 24(3), 2017-2033.

Urtamo, A., Jyvakorpi, S.K. & Strandberg, T.E. (2019). Definitions of successful ageing: A brief review of a multidimensional concept. Acta Bio Medica: Atenei Parmensis ,90(2), 359–363.

United Nations. (n.d.). Aging and disability. Retrieved from https://www.un.org/development/desa/disabilities/disability-and-ageing.html.

United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division (2020). World Population Ageing 2020 Highlights: Living arrangements of older persons. NY: United Nations.

Wanchai, A., & Phrompayak, D. (2019). A systematic review of factors influencing social participation of older adults. Pacific Rim International Journal of Nursing Research, 23(2), 131-141.

World Federation of the Deafblind. (2018). At risk of exclusion from CRPD and SDGs implementation: inequality and persons with deafblindness. Initial global report on situation and rights of persons with deafblindness.

World Health Organization. (2001). International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health: ICF. Geneva: WHO; 2001.

Downloads

Published

2023-06-30

How to Cite

Khamkhom, N. ., & Visuttipun , P. (2023). Social Engagement among Thai Older Persons with Visual or Hearing Impairment. Journal Of Ratchasuda Institute for Research and Development of Persons With Disabilities, 19(1), 1–20. Retrieved from https://so03.tci-thaijo.org/index.php/RSjournal/article/view/264488