Nopparat Chaichumni
Suansaranrom Psychiatric Hospital, Thailand
Title: The effect of a Thai culturally-based mutual support group program on quality of life in the elderly persons with BPSD
Biography
Biography: Nopparat Chaichumni
Abstract
The purposes of this experimental research were to compare the quality of life in the elderly persons with BPSD before and after received the Thai culturally-based mutual support group program and compare the quality of life in the elderly persons with BPSD who received the Thai culturally-based mutual support group program, and those who received the regular caring activities. Study samples composed of 70 elderly persons with BPSD and 70 caregivers were recruited according to the inclusion criteria from the elderly persons with BPSD attending outpatient ward in Suansaranrom and Songkhlarachanakarind hospitals. There were 35 subjects in each experimental and control groups. These samples were matched pair by age, sex and the educational level. The experimental group received the Thai culturally-based mutual support group program, whereas the control group received the regular caring activities. Research instruments were the Thai culturally-based mutual support group program and the QOL-D-Thai scale. These instruments were examined for content validity by 5 psychiatric experts. The reliability of the scales by Chronbach’s Alpha coefficients was .93. Statistical techniques utilized by data analysis were percentage, mean, standard deviation and t-test. Major results of this study were:
1. The quality of life in the elderly persons with BPSD who received the Thai culturally-based mutual support group program after the experiment was significantly increased than that before at the .05 level.
2. The quality of life in the elderly persons with BPSD who received the Thai culturally-based mutual support group program was significantly increased than those who received the regular caring activities at the .05 level.
The results of this study showed that the Thai culturally- based mutual support group program have implicated for enhancing the quality of life in the elderly persons with BPSD.