คุณภาพชีวิตของประชาชนที่อยู่อาศัยในเขตกึ่งเมืองกึ่งชนบท

Abstract

This study on people’s quality of life aimed to explore the socio-economic conditions and quality of life of people living in semi-urban area outside housing estate zone in Tambon Pa Dad, Mueang District, Chiang Mai Province. It covered 400 residents in such locality. The needed information was collected by questionnaire survey for descriptive statistics analysis in terms of arithmetic mean and percentage. The majority of the people under study were characterized as male, 25 – 45 years old, married, with educational attainment not higher than primary school level, engaged primarily in such petty trading occupation as running food shop and grocery shop. In most cases, they had never worked in agriculture. Those few persons who used to do farming in the past also changed their occupation most commonly into trading at present. On socio-economic conditions, the study found that more than half of the people in this semi-urban area were long time local residents. The average personal income was about 12,500 baht per month with some variation across occupations such as 15,200 baht for government worker, 14,500 baht for business company employee, 13,500 baht for trading, and 9.900 baht for independent worker. On the average, each person shouldered a debt burden of 281,000 baht most commonly from the purchase of automobile and motorcycle. The residents in this semi-urban area in most cases owned the land and house they lived in. In general, they and their household members participated in such community group as women development group and village fund as well as took part in various religious activities, community merit making, and cultural events, and also attended village community meeting and joined activities organized by local government like the Municipality Office. The overall quality of life was considered to be at moderate level. The quality of life in social aspect received the highest average score, followed by that in environmental, health, economic, and employment aspect in descending order. Specifically, the quality of life in social aspect was attributable to people’s relationship and bond with family institution, local community, peer group, and workplace, and to their feeling that they had equal opportunity for self-development. The quality of life in terms of environment was partly affected by the presence of water and air pollutions. The quality of life in health dimension was positively enhanced by the appropriate leisure time and activities that people enjoyed but negatively affected by alcohol drinking and cigarette smoking behaviors of some people. The quality of life from economic perspective appeared not so satisfactory as people had to spend high proportion of their income for the cost of living. The quality of life at workplace or in occupation received the lowest average score. This is because, despite the presence of safety in workplace, most people in the present study were either self-employed in trading/vending business or wage worker and thus were not included in the national social welfare system. Furthermore, these kinds of employment are not so secured making the self-employed or the wage workers have to struggle for more income probably by working more hours, and consequently making them have less opportunity to take part in occupational training for human resource development. On the level of quality of life, this study found that 33.0 % of the sampled people living in semi-urban area of Chiang Mai Province had high level of quality of life, 62.2 % had modest degree of life quality, and the remaining 4.8 % lived with poor quality of life. To improve the overall quality of life of people living in this semi-urban area, it is imperative that certain human behaviors be changed and certain government supports be provided. In the economic aspect, these people should spend less out of their existing income and should acquire housing of their own. In terms of employment, they should seek more secured job with secured income, get adequate labor welfare, and receive occupational training. The social quality of life can be further improved by people participating more in community activities. The quality of life in environmental perspective can be elevated if air, water, and noise pollutions in the local area can be lowered or eliminated. Meanwhile, the quality of life from health factor can be better if people can keep themselves free from chronic illness, maintain a good eating habit, and do regular physical exercise.