Self-esteem of the elderly in rural areas of Nakhon Sawan Province.

Objective: Study self-esteem of the elderly and factors related.

Material And Method: A cross-sectional survey of two hundred and seventy elderly, aged 60 or above in rural areas of Nakhon Sawan Province. The data were collected by interview questionnaire from May 12 to May 25, 2003. Statistics used for data analysis were frequency, percentage, mean, standard deviation, Pearson product moment correlation coefficient, and Stepwise multiple regression.

Results: More than half of the elderly (65.6%) had a moderate level of self-esteem, followed by a low level (19.3%) and a high level (15.1%). The factors that were statistically significant related to self-esteem of the elderly (p-value < 0.05) were monthly income, activities of daily living, personality, participation in family activities, participation in social activities, and social support. In addition, social support, participation in social activities, personality, and participation in family activities could significantly predict self-esteem of the elderly by 58.2%. The factor with highest predictive power of self-esteem was social support.

Conclusion: Elderly should be encouraged to participate in family and social activities. The level of social support should be high enough for the elderly to maintain their self-esteem so that they can have live happily without burden to family and society.