Page 70 - IJPS-11-2

International Journal of

Population Studies

RESEARCH ARTICLE
Unmet health-care needs among older adults

living alone in Thailand

1
Seung Chun Paek * and Ning Jackie Zhang 2
1 Department of Society and Health, Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, Mahidol University,
Nakhon Pathom, Thailand
2 College of Health Professions, Grand Valley State University, Michigan, United States of America

Abstract

The present study examined unmet health-care needs (UHN) among older adults
living alone in Thailand. This study had two specific objectives: (i) to analyze the
effect of living alone on UHN using a matched sample obtained from a propensity
score matching method and (ii) to analyze the sociodemographic determinants of
UHN using the entire sample of data. Descriptive analysis and logistic regression
were employed, along with Thailand’s 2019 Health and Welfare Survey dataset. The
findings indicated that older people living alone experienced 1.613 (confidence
interval [CI]: 1.066 – 2.440) times more UHN than those living with others (Objective 1).
Moreover, older people with low incomes and chronic diseases experienced 1.391
(CI: 1.015 – 1.923) and 5.629 (CI: 4.375 – 7.243) times more UHN than their counterparts
*Corresponding author: (Objective 2). Non-medical costs and a lack of social support facilitating access to
Seung Chun Paek health care (e.g., a lack of caretakers to bring older people to health-care providers
(seungchun.pak@mahidol.ac.th)
and a lack of affordable transportation options) may have been the primary causes
Citation: Paek, S.C. & Zhang, N.J. of the high UHN rate for these groups, as indicated in previous studies. Thus, the
(2025). Unmet health-care needs
among older adults living alone in government should continue its efforts to alleviate these issues. Specifically, the
Thailand. International Journal of existing community health volunteer program should prioritize older people living
Population Studies, 11(2): 64-74. alone who need caretakers during illness. Local health authorities should support
https://doi.org/10.36922/ijps.1218
the program by offering health emergency vehicles, especially to those living outside
Received: July 1, 2023 major cities with limited transportation options to access health-care providers. The
1st revised: September 5, 2023 government should also increase the old-age allowance to enhance the financial
independence of older people and extend the current telemedicine services to
2nd revised: November 15, 2023
district hospitals and community health centers. Such measures have significantly
Accepted: November 15, 2023 improved health-care access for low-income older people who do not have extra
Published online: February 22, resources to travel to health-care providers and chronically ill older people who need
2024 regular health care in Thailand.
Copyright: © 2024 Author(s).
This is an Open-Access article
distributed under the terms of the Keywords: Older people; Living arrangements; Living alone; Unmet health-care needs;
Creative Commons Attribution Health-care access; Propensity score matching
License, permitting distribution,
and reproduction in any medium,
provided the original work is
properly cited.
1. Introduction
Publisher’s Note: AccScience
Publishing remains neutral with Thailand is currently experiencing a rapidly aging population. In 2021, people
regard to jurisdictional claims in
published maps and institutional aged 65 years or older accounted for approximately 15% of the total population,
affiliations. which represented the highest percentage among the 11 Southeast Asian countries

Volume 11 Issue 2 (2025) 64 https://doi.org/10.36922/ijps.1218