Objective: To test a predictive model of factors contributing to perceived abilities for health-promoting self-care of community-dwelling Thai older adults synthesized from Orem's self-care theory and Bandura's self-efficacy theory. Design: A descriptive correlational, cross-sectional research design was used in the study. Population, Sample, and Setting: Stratified random sampling, based on age and gender, was employed to recruit a sample of 211 older adults living in rural areas of Suphanburi Province, Thailand. A survey-interview method was used for data collection. The study variables included age, education, perceived family support, perceived friend support, chronic health problems, functional ability, perceived health status, and perceived abilities for health-promoting self-care. Findings: Pearson's product-moment correlation coefficient was used to examine the relationships among the study variables. All hypothesized relationships were supported except for the relationship between age and chronic health problems and between age and perceived health status. The hypothesized model was tested by path analysis through a structural equation modeling program (EQS6). The initial hypothesized model did not fit the data, and so was modified until the goodness-of-fit indices were adequate (>.90). The robust comparative fit index (robust CFI = 1) indicated that the final modified model fit the data well. Conclusion: Five exogenous variables in the final modified model (age, education, perceived family support, perceived friend support, and chronic health problems) contributed to perceived abilities for health-promoting self-care, directly and/or indirectly through two mediating variables (functional ability and perceived health status). The mediating variables in the model also contributed to perceived abilities for health-promoting self-care. Sixty-one percent of the total variance in perceived abilities for health-promoting self-care was explained by all study predictors. Using the multisample structural equation modeling approach to test the modified model across groups, gender differences were not found in this study.
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