Population Ageing and the Well-Being of Older Persons in Thailand ...

Endnotes
1
On gender and ageing see Sobieszczyk, Knodel &
Chayovan (2003) which provides a framework for
interpreting gender differences including a review
of relevant policies and laws and socio-cultural
setting. More general framework for examining
gender and ageing are available in Knodel &
Ofstedal (2003) and Ofstedal, Reidy & Knodel
(2004). Additional studies specific to Thailand
include Knodel (2004) and Soonthorndhada
et al. (2008).
2
The 2007 National Survey of Older Persons is a
nationally representative survey of persons age 50
and older that provides information for over
30,000 persons age 60 and older. For 27 per cent
of these persons information was provided by a
proxy respondent, typically another household
member. For convenience, in this report we the
term respondent refers to the older person to
whom the responses apply even if a proxy
provided the information.
3
The measure should be considered only very
approximate for two reasons. First, persons in the
numerator are not necessarily parents of persons
in the denominator. Second, age reporting at very
old ages is often inaccurate and typically
exaggerated (Chayovan, Knodel and Siriboon
1990). Thus adjustments are required which mean
that the ratio is heavily dependent on assumptions
underlying the adjustment procedures.
4
Overall respondents age 60 and over average just
0.09 step and adopted children compared to 3.97
own biological children. Among those with no
biological children of their own, 28 per cent have
at least one step or adopted child compared to
only 7 per cent of those with at least one
biological child.
5
The Labour Force Survey provides more details
on educational attainment than the 2007 Survey
of Older Persons permitting forming more appro
priate categories for our purposes.
6
In NSO surveys, work refers to employment, work
for pay or profit, and work as an unpaid family
worker but excludes domestic chores within the
household. Since some types of work are seasonal,
estimates of economic activity during the
previous week will exclude some persons who work
at other times of the year but are inactive at the
time of the survey.
7
For example, 84 per cent of rural older persons or
their spouse own their home compared to only
70 per cent of urban older persons.
8
See (Knodel, Chamratrithirong & Debavalya
1987, p.158) for references to a series of studies
documenting the role of wives and husbands
within the family.
9
In 2007, the remaining 64 per cent of respondents
were evenly divided between those who lived in
wooden dwellings and those who lived in
dwellings made of both cement and wood.
10
The mean number of household possessions is
based on the items shown in table 3.8 except that
mobile phones and cell phones, cars and trucks,
and gas and electric stoves are treated as separate
items thus raising the maximum total number of
possible household possessions to 19.
11
For example, the life table shows under 5
mortality for boys to be more than seven times
that for girls, a very unlikely finding.
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