The way forward: experiences of health promotion development in Thailand.

A landmark in health promotion in Thailand came in 2001 with the launching of the Universal Health Coverage Scheme at the cost of approximately USD 2 billion a year. Another important event was the establishment of the Thai Health Promotion Foundation (ThaiHealth) as a health promotion funding mechanism that draws upon a 2 percent surcharge levied on alcohol and tobacco excise tax, approximately USD 50-60 million a year. The most significant institutional development is the promulgation of the National Health Act in 2007.

Integrated health promotion strategies: a contribution to tackling current and future health challenges.

This paper was presented as a technical background paper at the WHO sixth Global Conference on Health Promotion in Bangkok Thailand, August 2005. It describes what we know about the effectiveness of four of the Ottawa Charter health promotion strategies from eight reviews that have been conducted since 1999. The six lessons are that (i) the investment in building healthy public policy is a key strategy; (ii) supportive environments need to be created at the individual, social and structural levels; (iii) the effectiveness of strengthening community action is unclear and more research and evidence is required; (iv) personal skills development must be combined with other strategies to be effective; (v) interventions employing multiple strategies and actions at multiple levels are most effective; (vi) certain actions are central to effectiveness, such as intersectoral action and interorganizational partnerships at all levels, community engagement and participation in planning and decision-making, creating healthy settings (particularly focusing on schools, communities, workplaces and municipalities), political commitment, funding and infrastructure and awareness of the socio-environmental context.

A national survey of health-service use in Thai elders.

Objectives: To examine the pattern of health-service use and associated factors among elderly people in Thailand.

Design: A cross-sectional multi-stage random sampling household survey.

Subjects: 4480 People aged 60 and over.

Factors associated with state hospital utilisation among Thai elderly who had illnesses which needed hospitalisation.

Of the 4,480 elderly subjects in a multistage random sampling household survey of a National Survey of the Welfare of the Elderly in Thailand (SWET), 669 (14.9%) reported that they had been hospitalised during the last year and were recruited in an analysis which aimed to examine associated factors of state hospital utilisation among Thai elderly. Seventy eight per cent had been admitted once during the last year.