Household Need and Unmet Need for Caregivers of Older Persons in Thailand

ABSTRACT

The need for caregivers is a crucial issue in Thailand. This research examined levels and trends of household needs and unmet needs for caregivers of older persons and explored potential factors associated with these needs. The analysis utilized data from the Survey of Older Persons in Thailand 2007, 2011, 2014, and 2017. The household need for a caregiver of older persons was defined as a household with one or more older people who needed a caregiver to help them perform basic activities of daily living. The unmet need for a caregiver referred to households where at least one older person in the household needed care but did not receive it. Findings illustrated the increasing levels and trends of household needs as well as unmet needs over time. In terms of potential determinants, older person households in Bangkok and households with higher socioeconomic status were more likely to be the household need for caregivers. In contrast, those households in the Northeastern, the poorest region, were more likely to be the unmet need household. These findings are indicative of the rising demand for long-term care services in Thailand. However, it is vital to consider unmet household needs, especially in the worse-off area, when designing national policies.

KEYWORDS:

• Caregiver
• older people
• unmet need
• household
• Thailand

Key points

• Rising trends of households both with need and unmet needs for caregivers were revealed.

• The long-term care policy must take geographical differences into consideration.

• The national and local government should not only be aware of the challenges posed by the expanding need for long-term caregivers of older persons but also should be actively intervening to ease the household burden of long-term care for older persons, in particular, for households with low socioeconomic levels.

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the National Statistical Office (NSO), Ministry of Digital Economy and Society of Thailand for providing us 2007, 2011, 2014, and 2017 Survey of Older Persons in Thailand for this study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This research project is supported by Mahidol University under Grant [A32/2563].