A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF THE QUALITY OF LIFE AMONG THE ELDERLY WHO HAD RECEIVED AN EDUCATION AND THOSE WHO HAD NOT RECEIVED AN EDUCATION AT THE ELDERLY SCHOOLS IN PA SAO SUB-DISTRICT, MUEANG DISTRICT, UTTARADIT PROVINCE

Abstract

This analytical research aimed to investigate and compare the quality of life of the elderly who had received an education and those who had not received an education at the elderly school in Pa-Sao Sub-district in Mueang District of Uttaradit Province. The samples of the elderly who were educated in the elderly school were 80 persons and 80 persons of those who did not receive an education. Purposive random sampling was used for the subject selection. The research instruments were questionnaires. The data were analyzed by using descriptive statistics of percentage and mean. A comparative analysis of the quality of life of the elderly who attended and did not attend an elderly school was carried out with chi-square and independent t- test. The study results showed that the quality of life of the elderly who were enrolled in the elderly school were at the good level, while the elderly who did not enroll in the school were at the moderate level. The elderly who attended the elderly school had a higher level of quality of life than that of the elderly who did not attend the elderly school with statistic significant level at 0.05.  In addition, the average quality of life scores of the elderly who attended the elderly school were higher than that of those who did not attended the elderly school, in terms of physical, mental, social relationship, and overall quality of life with statistic significant level (t=4.8, p-value< 0.001). The results could be the recommendation for Pa Sao Subdistrict Municipality and related sectors to create programs focusing on the social relationship in the elderly school and be used for seting strategies or guideline to encourage the elderly to participate in senior school activities.