Statistical Analysis of Mental Health in the Elderly in Chiang Mai Province, Thailand
Keywords:
depression, logistic Regression, log-linear Modeling, principal components analysis, suicideAbstract
Currently, Chiang Mai province of northernThailandhas a higher proportion of the elderly than in the past. This trend has affected to the elderly people in many ways. The aims of this research are to study the attitude of the elderly people in Chiang Mai with regard to problems of depression and/or self-abuse, as well as to study the method of self-abuse, to compare these phenomena between municipal and non-municipal area in Chiang Mai and to analyze the factors affecting the depressive problems and/or self-abuse of the elderly in Chiang Mai. Finally, we give and discuss the predictive equation used to forecast the number of people expected to commit self-abuse in Chiang Mai.
In our study, we sampled 1,200 elderly people, 400 from main district and 800 from other districts in Chiang Mai by using multistage random sampling methodology. The data were subsequently analyzed using various descriptive statistics techniques, nonparametric statistics, categorical principal components analysis, nonlinear canonical analysis, categorical regression analysis, logistic regression and log-linear regression methods.
With regard to our study results, the mean age was 69.74 years old, with males and females comprising approximately equal parts. Most of the study participants were Buddhist, married and had under primary school or primary school education. The mean income and expenses of our study participants were less than 5,000 bahta per month, and they were without debt. The general attitude of the participants was normal and most of them had no depressive problem. Of those most affected by depressive problems, most had some personal diseases such as chronic disease or AIDS. The second factor affecting depression was loss of money or of a loved one. 15.8% used to some form of self-abuse and most of them used to self-abuse once. The most common method used to self-abuse was using sharp or solid object, and the second was hanging. For purposes of comparison, the municipal elderly had a higher level of depressive attitudes than for the non-municipal elderly. Factors affecting depression and/or self-abuse in the elderly could be categorized in two groups: a self-abuse factor and a general factor. The most factor affecting the being used to self- abuse was being used to commit suicide and the second was depressive moment and marital status with 98.3% forecasting power. The elderly who used to abuse themselves and always think of committing self-abuse is 1.02%.
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