The COVID‐19 pandemic has had negative impacts on vulnerable populations worldwide. This study aimed to examine the association between the health worries of urban older people in Thailand and covariates related to income and non‐income poverty, noncommunicable diseases (NCDs), and metabolic risk factors (MRFs). The study utilized the 2021 Survey on Housing and Support Services for Poor Older Adults, which sampled lower‐income urban adults aged at least 55 years from five national regions. Bivariate analyses were performed to determine the relationships of NCDs and MRFs with the covariates. Then, binary logistic regression was used to analyze outcomes of perceived health risks including becoming infected with COVID‐19, declining health status, and being unable to access health care. Higher educational attainment and income levels were observed to be negatively correlated with worse health status and the inability to access health care. Subjective household crowding consistently had a positive association with the three health concerns. Having MRFs was related only to concerns about health status and access to health care during the pandemic. Welfare and health policies need to improve their responsiveness to the needs of the older population, especially for protection from socioeconomic shocks such as those seen with the current pandemic.
While Thailand has achieved high levels of economic growth in recent decades, poverty at the local level has been increasing. Indicators of human development at the national level often mask the differences in well-being across communities. When responding to the need for sustainable development research, the heterogeneity of a population should be emphasised to ensure that no one is left behind. The Years of Good Life (YoGL) is a well-being indicator that demonstrates the similarities and differences between subpopulations in a given sociocultural context over time. The data used in this analysis were collected from Chiang Rai and Kalasin, which are provinces located in regions of Thailand with high poverty rates. Our main results indicate that the remaining years of good life (free from physical and cognitive limitations, out of poverty and satisfied with life) at age 20 among the sample population were 26 years for women and 28 years for men. The results varied depending on the indicators applied in each dimension of YoGL. Our analysis of the YoGL constituents indicated that cognitive functioning was the dimension that decreased the years of good life the most in the main specification. This study demonstrates the applicability of the YoGL methodology in investigating the wellbeing of subpopulations.
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