Polypharmacy is a geriatric syndrome defined variously as the use of potentially inappropriate drugs and/or the concurrent use of multiple medications including prescription and over-the-counter drugs. An association has been shown between polypharmacy and physical health, increased morbidity and increased mortality. However, there is little information regarding the association between polypharmacy and physical disease, personality trait and mental health problems in elderly. The aim of this study was to investigate potential predictive psychosocial factors related to polypharmacy in elderly Thai people. The study analysed the secondary data from the Depressive Disorders, Anxiety Disorders, Suicide Risk and Associated Factors Among Elderly Thai People Program (DAS Study) which was funded by National Research Council of Thailand and conducted between January 2012 and April 2013. Demographic and baseline clinical characteristics including sex, age, education, living alone or with others, access to health care privilege and monthly income were described. The number of medication, physical diseases and mental health problems (i.e. depression, anxiety, and personality trait of neuroticism) were analyzed using descriptive statistics, chi-square and proportional odds logistic regression. The 803 participants consumed an average of 2.13 prescribed medicines daily (SD 1.46, median = 2). The largest group used 3 medications (18.6%). Predictors found to be associated with polypharmacy in the logistic regression model included hypertension (OR = 1.985, 95% CI = 1.420–2.775), anxiety disorder (OR = 4.402, 95% CI = 2.630–7.367), number of diseases (OR = 2.140, 95% CI = 1.874–2.445), depressive disorder (OR = 1.470, 95% CI = 1.080–2.001), diabetes mellitus (OR = 1.864, 95% CI = 1.122–3.098) and dyslipidemia (OR = 0.511, 95%CI = 0.325–0.803). The prevalence of polypharmacy among Thai elderly was relatively high compared to other related studies. Several aspects should be taken into consideration before starting an additional medication in elderly patients. In addition to the number of physical disease that leads to polypharmacy, general practitioners should be aware of anxiety, depression, and personality trait of neuroticism that may be related to polypharmacy. Early detection for such condition as well as non-pharmacological intervention could be one way to help reduce polypharmacy in the elderly.

Introduction: High death and injury rates at work are continually reported by the Ministry of Labour, Thailand, despite the promotion of the occupational safety, health, and environment (OSHE) management system across all enterprises. To identify the gap between OSHE and workers’ perception in terms of safety climate in Thai organizations, the Nordic Safety Climate Questionnaire-Thai Version (T-NOSACQ) was used in this study. Methods: The content validity index of the T-NOSACQ was assessed and this tool was employed to examine workers in six manufacturing firms and a tertiary care hospital between October 2015 and December 2016. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis was performed on the total dataset to justify the final questionnaire. Multiple regression analysis was performed to determine the factors related to the safety climate score. Results: The final T-NOSACQ included 5 dimensions with a total of 42 items. The internal consistency of each subscale was in the range of 0.73–0.89. There were 1191 participants, including 88.9% workers and 11.1% leaders, who voluntarily responded to the questionnaire. The lowest safety climate score was obtained on the dimension ‘employees’ risk acceptance’, especially at factory A (2.67±0.45 and 2.92±0.45 for the worker and leader groups, respectively). The highest score was obtained on the dimension ‘employees’ engagement to safety, especially at factory F (3.30±0.33 and 3.46±0.42 for the worker and leader groups, respectively). Conclusion: The safety climate in both leader and workers groups can be predicted by T-NOSACQ. Thai employees exhibited a positive perception of safety engagement. However, the OSHE management system in Thailand, especially employees’ risk acceptance, should be improved.

Objective: To assess the attitudes of medical students toward patient-centered care and explore what the factorsthat influence these attitudes.Material and Method: A cross-sectional study was conducted in January 2015. A study population of 619 medicalstudents in their second to sixth academic year in Faculty of Medicine, Prince of Songkla University were invited toanswer the Patient-Practitioner Orientation Scale (PPOS) which was translated into Thai by back-translation withbilingual test and was used to assess the attitudes toward the doctor-patient relationship. The associations betweenthe PPOS score and the individual characteristics that included gender, academic year, grade point average(GPA), hometown, mean expenditure per month and residence during the study period were examined by using theindependent t-test, one-way ANOVA and multiple linear regression.Results: The total number of respondents was 520 (84.0%). The mean (S.D.) overall PPOS score was 3.8 (0.4).From multiple linear regression analysis, there were three factors that were significantly associated with the PPOSscore: gender, academic year and GPA (p-value