Understanding healthy aging in Isan-Thai culture

Project objectives

Healthy aging is the key of the goal to promote older people’s health and sustain their well-being. Although healthy aging is the goal in promotion of older people’s health in Thailand, there seems to be a lack of studies regarding this concept in northeastern Thailand or the Isan region.

The findings of the first study pointed out the key factors which will be helpful for healthcare providers in promotion of healthy aging. According to the second, the third and the fourth studies, the findings showed that there are different meanings of healthy aging from the perspectives of older persons, the children and grandchildren of older people, and community nurses. The results of this thesis will be useful to policy makers to apply these understandings regarding the meanings of healthy aging and developing healthcare practice when promoting of healthy aging in northeastern Thailand.

The overall aim of this thesis is to understand what the factors associated with perceived health and healthy aging are and how older people and their relatives in the Isan region conceptualize healthy ageing. Moreover, this thesis also focuses on how community nurses, who work with older people, experience of the meaning and promotion of healthy
aging within this region.

The objectives are to get a deeper understanding of healthy Aging in this specific context, in order to create structures för supporting older persons' Health.