The Potential and Need for Academic Services to Improve the Elderly’s Quality of Life

In 2033, Thailand is anticipated becoming a super-aged society with 28 percent of the elderly of the total population. Becoming an aging society can affect long-term development and economic growth rate of the country. When the elderly deteriorate, having academic services through activities such as health promoting, group joining, knowledge supports, and a suitable environment can promote their potential in several ways including health, social participation, stability, and abilities which enable them to live with good quality. Therefore, a study of the elderly’s potential to promote and improve their quality of life that is related to their needs is essential. The objectives of this research are to study 1) the levels of the elderly’s potential and the needs of academic services to improve their quality of life categorized by the different age ranges and 2) the correlations among the elderly’s age range, potential, and the needs of academic services. A methodology used was survey research with a purposive sampling, and the selected groups were the elderly who live in the target areas for academic services of King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi. The participants of this research were 314 elderly from two districts in Bangkok namely Thungkru and Bangkhuntien, and another district called Chombueng in Ratchaburi province. The data was collected by a questionnaire regarding the elderly’s potential and another one is about the needs of academic services. The reliability of the questionnaire was 0.799 and 0.935 respectively. The data was statistically analyzed by frequency distributions, percentage, standard deviation, and Pearson Correlation Coefficient. The results of the elderly’s potential level and their needs of academic services to improve their quality of life which are categorized by the range of age as an early, middle, and late elderly indicated that their potential and the needs of academic services were in a moderate level. The average value of the potential was 2.28, 2.24 and 1.93 respectively, and the average value of the needs of academic services was 2.12, 2.06, and 1.74 respectively. In terms of correlations among the age ranges, potential, and the needs of academic services, it was found that the early elderly have the positive correlation towards their potential, and the needs of academic services statistically significant at the 0.01 and 0.05 level respectively. The middle elderly have positive correlations towards the potential and the needs of academic services with no statistical significance at the 0.01 level, and the late elderly have negative correlations towards the potential and the needs of academic services at the statistical significance level of 0.001. In conclusion, the elderly are the people who have potential and the needs of academic services in moderate level, so a variety of activities related to academic services such as health promoting, clubs, knowledge and media accessibility, equipment that supports their living and the surrounding improvement should be provided in order to promote a good quality of their lives.