Database System Development of Mental Health Care for Elderly in Situation with COVID-19 Period

Background: Older people are at higher risk of suffering negative outcomes, including mental and physical health, during the social distancing for COVID-19 worldwide, with no exception in Thailand. Therefore, the aim of this phenomenal study is to establish the database system development of mental health care for the elderly during the COVID-19 public sentiment by using a geographic information system (GIS) to create a model database system.

Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional questionnaire was conducted by an elderly survey using a four-stage stratified random sampling to select 1,647 respondents aged 60 and over from the six subdistrict health promotion hospitals in four provinces, respectively. Descriptive statistics and stepwise multiple regression were used to analyze the data.

Results: The majority of the respondents were female (64.80%), aged 60–65 years (31.90%), and Buddhist (99.60%). Marital status: mostly married, live as a couple, or as a married couple (49.2%); level of education: mostly primary school (4th grade; 54.7%); not working (60.80%); average monthly income less than 1,000 baht (31.2%); with income sources, mostly from pensions (80.6%); income received is mostly inadequate (44.2%); and the majority had chronic diseases (58.8%), with mostly moderate health conditions in the last 6 months (44.3%). Significant factors affecting mental health problems or associated with stress in the elderly during the COVID-19 period were: participation in religious activities; daily activities (ability to perform basic daily activities); social support (from family, relatives, and friends); income; and anxiety during COVID-19. All of these factors could together predict the preventive behavior against mental health problems in the elderly during the COVID-19 period.

Conclusion: Based on the presented results, interdisciplinary healthcare teams should consider social support and access to healthcare when developing interventions for encouraging and promoting health outcomes in order to improve physical and psychological COVID-19 preventive behaviors and for the government in terms of increasing family income, particularly the oldest pension among elderly people during the COVID-19 pandemic.